Blow Up Your Heart Into the Sky
by tightgreenshorts
Summary: Sometimes the lives are simple. There's an evil that needs to be defeated. But other times, the evil skips a life time, but everyone else is still there. AU Reincarnation
1. Prologue

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**Blow Up Your Heart Into the Sky**

In some lives, it's simple.

Uther is some sort of ruler. Arthur is his son, and always a prat.(Reincarnation can't change everything.). Morgana is usually his daughter, or niece, who constantly gives him trouble.(She sometimes sees the future, and other times she has strikingly clear dreams.) Gaius is always some sort of miracle worker, and is always working, but free, for the Pendragons. Igraine almost always dies.(When she didn't, she killed Uther, which, even though he was a giant suppressive bastard, let evil win for once. So she kind of has to die for everything not to go to hell.)

Hunith is always Merlin's mother, and she is always nice. Will is always Merlin's friend, and sometimes lover, but he always dies before Merlin. Tom is always Gwen's father, and sometimes Hunith's husband.(Which is nice because then Gwen and Merlin get to be brother and sister.)

Gwen is always sweet, and always with Merlin. (Which was strange at first, because she is also always faithful to Morgana, respectful to Arthur, and in love with Lancelot. But in every life after Camelot, they always know each other from birth. Sometimes it's because they're related, and other times it's because they grew up in the same town.) Lancelot is always amazingly heroic, and makes almost everyone fall for him. (He and Arthur are always born beautiful, and that's never fair to everyone else.) He and Gwen always run away together in the end. (Sometimes they come back, other times they don't.)

The Dragon is there in every life. Sometimes it's a ghost. Sometimes it's some sort of animal. But most of the time it's human. When the dragon is a human male he's usually an older brother type to Merlin. Or a crazy old man sprouting prophecies. When it's female the Dragon's a fortune teller. Or a strong woman type. Sometimes Nimueh and Mordred are there, but because they were so deeply involved with magic, they tend to be harder and harder to recognize as each turn goes by.

Merlin always makes a difference. Camelot was the only time he had sorcery magic, but in all of the other lives, he works magic. He still avoids Uther when he can. He almost always ends up having to serve Arthur.(And sometimes they have some sort of romance. Those lives always seem a bit better than the others.) He does whatever Morgana asks of him, because he always feels a connection to her. Gaius is always a mentor to him. He never meets Igraine. He always loves Hunith. He always hates losing Will. He never gets to know Tom well. He always loves Gwen, but even after thousands of times, he's never in love with her. He always gets saved by Lancelot at least once. The Dragon always gives him advice that he tends to ignore.

There's always some sort of evil to deal with, and there are people to be saved.

And _those_ are the simple lives.

/|\

Then there are the complicated lives. Where there is no evil to deal with. Unless you count social net-working cites to be evil. Or Star-bucks and McDonalds, and all the other fast food companies that slowly make the world lazy and impatient.

/|\

One of the strange things is that their names never seem to change.(Hunith sometimes goes by 'Honey' and Gaius goes by 'Guy'. And Dragon is only called Dragon as a nick name. When it's female it tends to go by Darci.) With everything else in the world being strange and confusing, it's a nice touch that they never need to be confused about their names.

/|\

They remember their past lives in dreams. But they never really remember their past lives. They just live their lives, and let their destiny's, past, present, and future, guide which way they go.

/|\

The life when the Dragon's an artist named Darci is a nice, but complicated life. It's one of the few that everything works out in the end, which doesn't usually happen.

It's the one that makes the good dreams they have.

-.-

**{Author's Note~Reviews are what inspires one to upload the next part.)**


	2. The Beginning

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**The Beginning**

"Why did I have to take a bath? Why am I in my pajamas? Where are you taking me? Why am I not in my room? How come you put me in my pajamas even though the sun didn't even go away yet? Are you kicking me out? Do I have to sleep outside? Did I do something bad?" By the time Hunith made it to Darci's door. Merlin was crying and begging not to be left outside. This was understandable though. He was only four. (Four and eleven months and that's practically five so he's not a little kid according to the boy himself.)

The door, like always, was unlocked. Darci was inside with Gwen watching coloring a picture in the makeshift kitchen table, and Tom was saying good bye to Darci.

"Why didn't you tell me I was just going to Darci's? But you never put me in pajamas first so why did you do it this time? Am I spending the night here? Is Gwen staying here? Are you and Mr. Gwen's dad going on a date? Are you gonna kiss? Cause I don't know if I can get cooties from you. Can I?" When Hunith had the time, she would answer all of Merlin's questioned, which he almost always had. But she finally had time to go out to dinner with Tom, and she was focusing more on that at the moment. Plus Merlin always had thousands of questions, but never really listened for the answers unless the question was important.

"Slow down Mer." Darci said in her normal laid back fashion. "I did some more sketches for you and Gwen to color, and I even got a 64 pack of crayons so you better get started before Gwen uses all the pretty colors."

Merlin ran over to the table and began coloring. Like almost every time before he didn't notice his mother leaving.

It was about 15 minutes later when Darci's cell phone rang. Gwen and Merlin stopped chatting and tried to listen to what she was saying. Both four year olds were always curious about what she was doing.

"Oh hello Uther.

No, I'm sort of busy.

Well I know it's my art show, but I already signed a contract that said you could do whatever with my art, but I don't need to be present at every little publicity stunt.

I'm not being unreasonable, I'm busy.

You don't think I know this is because Morgana and Arthur don't have a baby sitter there?

I'm baby-sitting.

If I can bring them with I guess I could come.

They're four, but they're really well behaved.

No, yeah, I'm sorry, this whole becoming an artist while trying to get through college and baby-sit for my neighbors is a little hard. I'll try not to snap as much. I know you're just looking out for me.

It won't be a problem, you know I'm good with kids no matter how many are there.

No I'll just walk it's not to far away.

Alright thank you Uther."

As soon as the phone was put down Merlin was asking questions.

"Who was that?"

"Uther"

"Who's Uther?"

"Kind of my boss."

"How come he's kind of your boss?"

"He's in charge of all my art and stuff."

"So you're selling your art to pay for college?"

"Yep. Now we have to get you two dressed so we can go to this thing."

The small group went to Gwen's apartment and got a yellow dress on her. Then they went to Merlin's room. He was in light brown trousers and a blue shirt. Darci was wearing a white tank top and a loose brown skirt. She had a multi-colored scarf around her neck.

Merlin was still asking questions when they got to the art gallery. There were already many people in there. "These people are most likely friends of Uther's. He's kind of rich, so it will be easier if we just stay quiet. They're rich, so they're easily offended. I promise as soon as were done here we can go get ice cream at whatever store is closest." Both kids smiled brightly.

"DARCI!" came this excited voice. A yellow and red blur, which shoved Merlin away from Darci, was suddenly hugging Darci.

"Hello Arthur." she said with a smile. "Where's Morgana?"

"Right here." came this proud voice. Merlin turned to see a pretty girl with long dark hair and a pretty purple dress.

"Great, since you're all here, lets do introductions."

"I'm Arthur Pedragon, my dad is really rich and I'm seven." Arthur said looking quite proud.

"I'm Morgana Pendragon. Arthur's dad is my uncle, and I'm staying with them until my dad gets better. I'm eight." Morgana smiled. "Who are you guys?"

"I'm Gwen. I'm four years old. So is Merlin even though he says he's five." she said with a playful smile.

"But I'm almost five so I can say that. Plus mom says you can't really tell my age cause I look younger than I am." Merlin whined.

"Yeah," Arthur said, eyes filled with mischief, "Cause you look like a baby."

Merlin frowned. He wasn't supposed to say anything, and he really wanted ice cream.

"It's probably because of your giant ears."

This got Merlin's attention. He turned and buried his face in Darci's skirt. He wasn't going to show the meanie that he had made him cry.

Darci noticed this and decided to distract the kids. "Do you guys want to hear the stories behind the pictures? Some are fairy tales, while others are about fierce battles."

All four children seemed interested. So they went through the small gallery as Darci made stories up about the pictures. Some were from dreams she had while others were made up on the spot. Eventually other people there started listening. They al seemed amused by the stories.

When Darci was finished she sent the kids by the food and had to meet a few people that were interested in buying her art.

/|\

Uther still locks the dragon away in every life. Some times Uther's a kidnaper, sometimes the Dragon is his next wife, sometimes the Dragon's a prized animal, or a criminal. And even in the case of the Dragon being an artist, Uther still captures her.

/|\

Darci got wrapped up in the busy-ness of being an artist by the next summer. She had made a lot of money, but constantly had art she needed to shell out. She seemed more stressed. She started running out of time to baby-sit the kids. Gwen and Tom moved away, but a new family with a son named Will moved in. Merlin started staying at their house instead of Darci's house when he needed some one to watch him. Then one day he came home from school and she wasn't there.

His mom later explained that she had started living in a new area closer to Uther so she didn't need to cart her art every where. He still felt that she had been taken away. He had been six when Darci disappeared from his life.

It was thirteen years later when he got to see her again.

**{Author's Note~ This story is a lot of fun for me to write, but I would love to hear what you guys think about it. Please leave reviews.}**


	3. The Dragon's Call

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**Dragon's Call**

"Oh Will, why did you do the dishes?" the nineteen year old said looking up from long eyelashes.

"Why?" came Will's annoyed reply. "I live in this house as much as you do. You should be thankful I did that since all you do is laze around in front of your computer."

"It's an apartment, you don't live in it, my mom is nice enough to let you stay here because your mom kicked you out, I do almost everything else in the house while mom's working. I also have a job-"

"Um... excuse me, which one of us has a steady job and pays for half of the rent?"

"Well I'm sorry I'm not good at destroying things and lifting heavy stuff! All the money I make has to go towards the college courses I'm taking online. And I'm not lazing around in front of the computer I'm getting an education." Merlin regretted the words as soon as they came out of his mouth.

"Sorry were not all as smart as you Merlin!" Will said as he got up and stormed out.

Hunith was home minutes after. "What did you and Will fight about this time?"

"The same thing. I'm not paying rent, and it's cause I'm trying to get an education so I can get a job as a teacher, but once again my stupid mouth made the words sound bad and he got mad." Merlin sighed. "I just... It's hard being here. I never have time to work on my courses, and I'm constantly losing my job and-"

"You never have time to work on your art?" Hunith had heard these complaints before.

"Yes. But I mean, I don't need to, I just want to and that's selfish. I just wish I could find a steady job with a really nice boss who let me stay at where ever I was working late so I could work on my courses. "

"And I wish I had a husband, a nice house with a picket fence, and could stay home all day taking care of my babies." Hunith said mimicking her son with a sigh. "But not all wishes come true."

But two weeks later Gwen called, and Merlin had to doubt what his mother had said.

Gwen and Merlin had remained friends even after she moved away. They ended up going to the same high school, and were acting like siblings by the third week of freshman year. They had stayed this way through out the next 4 years. Many people thought the two were dating, but they were more like a couple of girlfriends. They both decided to take courses online so they would have time to work to pay for it. Gwen had found a job right away with some sort of heiress, and she would sometimes call to rave about how wonderful her job/life/income was. Merlin would sort of listen, but also use the time to do chores around the house. However, this time Gwen was offering him a job. And, because of an incident with a loud-mouthed under-age brat, he was unemployed, so he was willing to take any job that life threw at him. Not without finding out all about it first though.

"I didn't think slaves still existed Gwen." Merlin said leaning his head against the phone so he can fold clothes at the same time.

"It's not a slave. It doesn't really have a title. But I mean, it's really easy. You just tidy up their houses, which are actually just little apartments in their dad's big building where they work, and run various errands for them." Gwen explained.

"Oh," he began mimicking her voice. "'And when there's a feast we get to attend it, but we have to remember to keep their glasses full or we might get sent to the stocks.' I mean Gwen, it sounds great. But you're working for Morgana. If everything anyone says about her is true she's really nice. You know as long as your not an asshole."

"And in the briefly 5 months we've been away from each other you've become an asshole?" Gwen said playfully.

"No, but the job of being Morgana's personal house keeper is taken. I doubt their father is in need of an assistant, and even if he is I'm way to under qualified. That leaves the son, and everyone knows about how evil he is." Merlin could tell Gwen was about to protest. "Don't. Everyone knows about his old assistant Nimueh and how he fired her and she was unable to get a job any where else."

"That was his father's doing, not his. He's really nice if you get to know him. Just come to the interview. Please."

So Merlin went to the interview and didn't get the job. He was mindlessly sketching in a datebook while waiting for a cab when an oldish looking man took attention to what he was doing.

"What are you drawing?" the man said.

Normally Merlin would look annoyed and shut his book and say it wasn't important. But that was usually because it was some guy or girl trying to flirt with him, or Will being incredibly stupid. But the man seemed nice enough. He looked down to the doodle. It was a room filled with plants and beakers, but it looked very old. "I have no idea. It was just something I saw in my head. I tend to do that."

The man laughed. "I'm Gaius. I go by Guy. I'm a doctor for Camelot Corp."

"My epic fail at getting the job has already reached the doctor?" Merlin said. Really, it hadn't have been that bad of an interview.

"You dumped water on your potential employers head. Almost everyone in the building knows."

"So I take it this isn't some random encounter while I wait for a bus or a taxi."

"No. You're mother wouldn't happen to be Hunith Emrys would she?" Guy asked looking somewhat sheepish.

"If you tell me you're my father I will storm off and never come back." Merlin said suddenly glaring. Since he was little Hunith's ex-boyfriends would always assume they were his father. He was the child of artificial insemination. So he would never know who his father was. But he didn't really care.

"No. No" Guy said a little forcefully. "Her and I never did anything that would lead to that. I wasn't interested in her. We were friends in college. You look a lot like her."

"But with darker hair and sharper cheek bones?" Merlin said because everyone he ever met always said that.

"I take it I'm not the only person who's talked to you about Hunith?" Guy said with a laugh.

"Well," Merlin said sheepishly. He didn't enjoy talking about his mother's younger years. "Free Love and all of that." He waved a little frantically with his hands.

"Do you need a job?" Guy said.

His answer to that was always the same one. "Yes, please. And thank you."

"It not an easy job. There are deliveries that I need done, and a lot of them need to be done discreetly. Stuff like birth-control, pregnancy tests, and other certain things that you will be sworn to secrecy on." Guy looked at him. "If I can trust you, the job's yours."

Merlin looked into Guy's eyes. "You can. Promise."

"Alright then."

The next week passed far to quickly. There were so many deliveries to be done. Sometime during the week his mother had dropped all of his stuff off. Guy was letting him stay in the extra bed room. The job was everything he wanted, except he had no time to work on his college courses. He started staying up later to work on class work, but that caused Guy to have more time to have him do stuff. It was 3 AM and Merlin was finishing a paper on Nurture Vs. Nature. Guy knocked on his door. He stumbled out.

"Who needs a delivery?" he said groggily.

"Room 1105."

"On the eleventh floor? But there's no elevators there." Merlin said shuddering at the thought of having to walk up and down the two flights of stairs that led there.

"I know, but she rarely asks for anything, and the fact that she has might mean she's working."

Merlin was to tired to ask what he was talking about. "Fine. What is it?"

"Allergy medicine." Guy said handing him the small bottle.

"So I don't need to be shockingly discreet?"

"I'm afraid you do. She doesn't want anyone to know because they'll tell Uther. So hurry up."

Merlin wanted to ask why Uther couldn't find out but he didn't really care. On the way up a flight of stairs he heard a angry sounding woman talking on the phone.

/|\

In every life Mary Collin is a little crazy and tries to go about ruining Arthur's life in one way or another. And it's almost always because Uther has done something to her son, or in this case younger brother. This doesn't change when she's Helen Colbert, an aspiring artist whose little brother's dreams were cut short because of a bad review by Uther. She had been scouted by Arthur, but was already planning to ruin him.

/|\

"Because Marcus, his father is an asshole and humiliated you. You were...no you are a great artist, and just because he doesn't like homoerotic paintings doesn't mean he needed to slander you. Your art work is beautiful.

I already shipped everything to the people who bought it on the internet site. There's nothing left. When Arthur Pendragon has no art from his new artist his job will be ruined. And Uther will see what it's like to see the one you love the most fail.

Marcus, I don't care. It doesn't matter if I feel guilty about it now, it's done.

I don't feel guilty though.

I know he had nothing to do with it, but Arthur Pendragon is the closest person to Uther.

Well Morgana's nice. She helped you find that cute little gallery that will show your stuff. I wouldn't want any harm to come to her.

I don't care if they're mad, I'll be in Canada by then.

Marcus, I don't need to explain myself to my little brother.

Good Bye."

She was off the phone and looking quite angry. Merlin walked up the stairs but avoided her eyes and pretended not to notice her. He knocked softly at the door of 1105.

"Come in." came a somewhat familiar voice, but Merlin couldn't place it. He handed the woman the medicine. "Thank you." she said smiling. "Would you like some tea? I made it so I could have some with my medicine, but I think I made to much."

"Um.. yeah okay I guess." Merlin looked around the room. It was full of unfinished paintings. However there were a few that were done. One was of two women in chain mail. They had swords and looked very strong. One had a kind dark face while the other was pale but beautiful. They looked like they were busy in battle, yet the two were looking at each other like they were the only ones in the whole world. Another was the same dark girl and a handsome young man with curly dark hair embracing in a forest. The man was in a knight's uniform looking very heroic. The woman was in a dress and looked like a queen. They looked at each other guiltily even thought there embrace suggested they were lovers. The forest behind them was dark around them though the two of them glowed. Far of in the distance there was some sort of castle and even though it was lighter than the rest of the painting it seemed to be the darkest part. The last finished picture was of a black haired boy looking ill on a bed. In his hand there was a glowing ball of blue light. His covers turned into rocks on a cave wall further down the picture and the same blue light was there near a blond in armor who was clinging to the rock wall.

The woman set a cup of tea in front of him. "They aren't worth anything unless I sign them. I keep them out like that to make Uther angry. It's a fun little past time since the rest of my time has to be spent painting pictures I don't want to. Bit of advice sweetie, even if you're nineteen and the guy seems nice, read contracts. Thoroughly."

"Hmm...So what are the pictures of?" Merlin said sipping on the peppermint concoction.

She pointed to the picture of the two women. "Female warriors, back in the medieval times, because there is never enough of that." she motioned to the next picture. "That is supposed to be Queen Guinevere and Lancelot."

"How did you make the castle seem so dark even though it's the lightest part?" Merlin said still enthralled with the painting.

"Not many people notice that. I think it's all about the minds eye. I don't think anyone really knows the story between those two. But don't you think the castle must have seemed so dark for them? Having to go back and be queen and loyal knight even though you weren't with the one you loved?" She motioned towards an unfinished painting. "That's the other half of it." Only the walls were currently colored, and it was a dull grey. "It will be better when I'm done."

"I'm sure." he said with a smile. "And the last one?"

"Merlin and Prince Arthur." she said.

"I thought Merlin had an incredibly long white beard and Arthur was some little kid." Merlin said. "Not some panting sickly boy and a knight."

"People also though the world was flat. Bu nothing is ever as it seems." she sipped on her tea. "It's just an artist's interpretation though." The two looked at each other from some time. Finally Merlin had to ask.

"Darci?" he said quietly not wanting to be wrong.

"So you're Merlin then?" she said with a big grin. The two hugged. They spent the rest of the night talking about what had happened to the two of them since they last saw each other. When he had told Darci about drawing she had told him to try not to show anyone here any of his art work. 'They're like vultures. They'll see that you're young and try to sweep you up into their false smiles and demanding contracts. So just, I would suggest keeping that talent to yourself.' It was about 8 when Darci finally brought it up.

"So you going to go help Arthur out?"

"With what?" Merlin said crunching on one of the apples from her fruit basket.

"That woman was horribly loud. I could hear her from here. I'm sure you could to. Now are you going to help him or not?"

"Why would I?" Merlin said. "It's good that he be made to look a fool. He's quite a prat. He deserves to be brought down a notch."

"Maybe, but not by force. Someone needs to show him how to behave by being helpful, not by making him a fool. And you will help him because it's your destiny."

"It's my destiny?" he said raising an eyebrow.

"Merlin's are supposed to protect Arthur's are they not?"

"Don't bring legend into this. And even if I wanted to help him, how would I? You said I shouldn't do any art work and even if I wanted to I don't have any time. The thing starts in an hour." Merlin wouldn't admit it, but for some reason he did want to help.

"Hmm...we're in a room with three finished paintings that just need a signature and you're wondering what we should do. Really Merlin, I thought that education of yours would be making you smarter." She said with a laugh as she grabbed a pear.

"You would? You would sign a painting to help me out?" Merlin said. During their chat she had made it quite clear that she wouldn't be giving any art to Uther Pendragon unless it was completely necessary.

"Of course. You've always been a big inspiration for all of my art work, so I might as well give you something for it." she said reaching for the picture of Merlin and Prince Arthur and grabbing a small brush.

"Me, or my namesake?"

She laughed. "Both my dear."

As soon as her name was on it he was rushing downstairs. The reception was being held on the third floor but Arthur's room was on the fifth. Merlin hoped and prayed that he would be in his room. When he knocked no one answered. He went inside any way and found Arthur angrily screaming at his phone.

"WELL FIND HER AND DON'T CALL ME BACK UNTIL YOU DO!" He angrily hung up and turned around and spotted Merlin. "Why it's the fool who dumped water on my head. What are you even doing here? Are you part of this? The whole screw Arthur over plot done by Miss Helen?"

"I...uh..." he started speaking as fast as he could. "I'm working for Guy and I was delivering something to Miss Darci upstairs when I heard about what happened and I was telling her about it and she said she used to know you when you were little and even when I told her you were a horrible prat now she said she still felt bad so she signed this and said you could use it if you don't have anything. " Merlin held up the painting.

Arthur stared at it. Then he grabbed it and set it down. "Thank you. That... What you did was amazing, because well she never does art any more. And you didn't have to but you did." Arthur looked somewhat embarrassed. "If you still want the job as my assistant... the spot isn't filled so..."

Merlin realized what he was saying. "Oh..um..." It would be better pay and he might, just might have more time for classes. And he could still help Guy when he had time. "Yeah. I could really use that job, so um.. yeah. Okay."

"Right."

Then Arthur said the list of things he had to accomplish before 9 and Merlin instantly regretted it. But he still did them all and finished seconds before the event started. Then he did the rest of the chores that Arthur said had needed to be done before the event was over.

The brunch ended up going very well because everyone was amazed that Arthur had gotten Darci to do a painting. Uther managed looking proud and annoyed at the same time.

When what felt like the longest day of Merlin's life was over he went to get his stuff from Guy's house, but Guy insisted that he could still stay with him. Merlin was far to tired to argue and instead collapsed on the bed.

Hopefully tomorrow would be easier.

**{Author's Note: Wow. That took a lot longer than expected. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave reviews and tell me what you think.}**


	4. Valiant

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**Valiant**

Valerie Chambers is a bitch. Sure, she's successful bitch, but after she gets Merlin fired he doesn't like her. At all. Okay maybe a little because Arthur is most likely the most bossy person he has ever worked for, and when he fires him Guy feels bad for him and just gives him a little bit of work. Which helps him have time to find Sandy Shiba. And bring Valerie and her Viper twins down.(Well mostly Valerie, and he had consent from the Viper twins) And prove that he wasn't lying, and maybe if Arthur's in a good mood, get his job back.

Merlin actually starts out thinking that Valerie Chambers is very... interesting. If he was into people like her, he would've definitely found her attractive. But she did have this some what rough and rugged look to her, even in a woman's business suit. She was tough and had this no nonsense or I will beat you senseless personality. She's also a lesbian, which means they have a bit of common ground(Merlin has no idea what his sexuality is, but he doesn't think it's 100% straight) even if he would never admit this to anyone ever.

He isn't exactly sure if she works in the building, but one day she's just there and everyone thinks she's amazing because she found a pair of twins, Hank and Dean Viper, and they are both artists and oh, isn't she so amazing? Arthur is annoyed, and works this out by ordering Merlin to do chores that he doesn't really think need to be done. (He has never heard of polishing stair railings. And he doesn't think Arthur's junk needs to be dusted. Twice.) Arthur also attempt to teach Merlin how to fight. It includes having a stick as a weapon, but the rest of it is just using your body. After getting hit with the stick about one hundred times, he gets fed up and says if he ever has someone attacking him, he isn't going to grab a stick to defend himself. Arthur calls it a staff, but Merlin really doesn't care. After getting hit by Arthur's shoulders, elbows, and fists, he wishes he had the stick back.

There's some sort of fancy dinner party, but, like Gwen assured him, he gets to stay down stairs and eat all the extras the cooks made. Of course this leads to him and Gwen throwing food at each other, and a good amount of the night is spent cleaning up that mess. Morgana ends up showing up, and she and Merlin are introduced. She seems familiar, but that could because she's in many magazines. Morgana complains to Gwen about Valerie and how she was trying to seduce her. Gwen does her best to comfort her, but when Morgana returns to her room, her and Merlin laugh about it.

"To be so beautiful that anyone showing any attention to you is their attempt of trying to seduce you." Merlin places a hand on his heart. "How dreadful that must be."

Gwen laughs, but sticks up for Morgana. After a bit more teasing, because Merlin already had a bit to much to drink, Gwen helps him back to Guy's room before going to her apartment. He's so tired he forgets to start on his next paper for his new course.

The next morning Merlin's a little late so he hurries and stumbles through the giant building that he kind of sort of lives in, and totally breaks his poor back working in. He gets a little lost on the way to Arthur's room, and finds Valerie harassing some young girl who may have a job there, but with so many people working there he can never really tell. He thinks he hears her say something like 'art' 'draw' 'now' something about money, and a few things Merlin just pretends not to hear. She sounds very frightening, and he wishes there were some way to get the girl away from her.

"MERLIN!" comes this angry voice that Merlin had heard far to much of lately. Even though Merlin is not thankful to see Arthur, he is thankful that the man's loud booming was able to give the girl a distraction and a way to get away. He sees her scurrying off towards and elevator and away from Valerie before he turns to give Arthur his attention. This apparently is a bad idea, because Arthur assumes he should get attention from everyone because he is super important. Merlin really wants to look away, because Arthur's glaring daggers at him, but he also wants to show he has a back bone, so he doesn't.

"Do you stand around doing nothing all the time or is it only when I need something done?"

"It's a bit of both sir." he says with a cheeky grin.

Arthur just glared. "If you have time to wander around and be sarcastic, you have time to wash and press my shirts, polish my shoes, make me a dentist appointment that doesn't interfere with my schedule, pick up my dry cleaning, wash my windows, steam clean the carpets, re-organize my closest, because you did it wrong last time, clean the bathroom, especially the toilets and refill the decretive soaps, wash and steam press my linen, and replace all the light bulbs in my room with the new energy efficient type." Merlin just stared at him. "And when you're done with that, you can go help Guy with the deliveries, or what ever it is you do for him."

With that Arthur walked away.

"Would you also like me to polish your armor sire? And your sword and clean the chambers?" he said very annoyed as he stormed off to Arthur's room.

He does finish all of the chores. But he also brings his laptop, so when he's finished he starts writing his paper. Of course, he falls asleep because ever since he was young doing work makes him sleepy. He's woken up by Arthur throwing a shoe at him. Thankfully it's not the ones he polished, but they are old running shoes that smell really bad, so Merlin isn't all that thankful. "Why didn't you just yell at me?" Merlin says groggily.

"My shoe was so much closer, and much more fun to throw."

Merlin holds back a comment about Arthur acting like a five year old, but only because it was really unprofessional of him to fall asleep in his employers room.

"You finished all the chores and had time to sleep." Merlin just nodded. "You're a lot faster than I thought you would be. But I doubt you did them without complaining."

"If there's video cameras in this room, I would suggest not watching the tapes from when I was cleaning." Merlin said sheepishly. "You know, because of my rights to privacy."

"There are no video cameras. And even if there were, you still got the job done a lot faster than I thought you would, so I wouldn't fire you just yet."

"Good. I might actually be starting to enjoy this job." Merlin admits a bit quietly.

Arthur looks a little surprised, but looks away and when he turns back he looks normal again.

Of course, Merlin has to go and open his mouth and ruin the safe silence. "Will you need help undressing my lord?" Arthur gives him a look of confusion, amusement, and annoyance. "I...uh.. Sorry it's just Gwen.. and..."

"You and Gwen undress each other?" he says and even though Merlin can tell he's joking he still flushes.

"No, it's just... there's this joke about being a servant and... I'm sorry that was really stupid of me to say."

"I wouldn't expect any less than that from you."

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Well...I'll be going now."

Merlin ended up not being able to fall asleep and he finished half of his paper. He also only got 2 hours of sleep. He had survived on less than that before, but he was still pleasantly surprised when Arthur didn't need much done. He ended up helping Guy with deliveries.

Merlin had seen the girl who had been harassed by Valerie the day before. While she was talking with what Merlin assumed was her boss, he looked at her desk. There were many intricate sketches that looked a lot like the work the Viper twins did. Then it seemed to click in Merlin's head. He decided to go to Arthur with his discovery. Because Arthur and Valerie were in the same business he might know the way to go about revealing what she was doing.

Turns out the way to go about doing it would be going to Uther and explaining it to him. Of course Valerie and Sandy, the girl who did the sketches, were called and everything went to hell.

/|\

Valiant tends to get away with things the first time around because he has some sort of alibi or trick up his sleeve.

Merlin always get fired at least once before his job is steady. This was true in the case where he was politician, to the case where he was a stable boy. So it wasn't going to change this lifetime around.

/|\

Sandy claimed that she was a fan of the Vipers, and was trying to imitate their style. She apologized a lot for the inconvenience. Merlin couldn't help but notice that her eyes were always looking frightened, and her gaze remained on Valerie. Valerie also kept her eyes on Sandy, and looked incredibly angry.

Uther was incredibly mad, but his anger paled in comparison to Arthur's. They were barely in Arthur's room when Arthur calmly told Merlin he was fired from the job. Of course when Merlin protested he yelled at him to get out. Something inside him told him to stay, but he was a bit to freaked out by the glare in Arthur's eyes.

So he left Arthur's room as quickly as possible and raced to find Sandy. Because he knew someone who was a lot better at convincing people than he was. He believed that he was incredibly lucky when she was with the Viper twins. They looked a little freaked out to be caught talking to each other, so it wasn't to hard to get them to come with him to see Darci.

Turns out Hank and Dean were really big fans, and after seeing some of her work, Sandy was too. Merlin's eyes were drawn to the dull grey wall painting. But now it was done a little more, and there were two people in an embrace, but it was only out lined.

"Merlin, would you mind if I spoke to these three alone?"

At the same time Darci said that, Merlin's cell phone rang. It was Gwen, so he just nodded and left. He met her at a small coffee house outside of the building because she was on break.

Gwen looked sorry and made sure Merlin knew that she was. "I know you're not lying, but there's really no way to prove it."

"I'm working on that right now actually." Merlin said with a sideways smirk.

"Please don't get yourself arrested." Gwen said quite worried.

"That was one time Gwen. And I wasn't even guilty."

"I know, but you still went to jail."

Merlin shuddered remembering the night. Merlin's phone rang again. This was the most calls he had ever got in one day. He didn't recognize the number, but he answered any way.

The voice was quite familiar. "Did you do this?"

"What?" he said confused at the phone. "Did I do what, Arthur?"

"Both twins just admitted to my father that the person who's been drawing all of their art work is that girl who was in here earlier."

It had barely seemed like five minutes had gone by. Really, Merlin thought Darci was good at getting people to tell the truth, but not that good. Of course, he had forgot about the two flights of stairs he had to take, talking with Guy for a few minutes when he asked what happened, and waiting in the lobby for Gwen, so maybe Darci did have a good amount of time. Plus the way the two boys were fawning over her, she probably just had to bat a few eyelashes.

"I.. where did you get my number from?"

"That's your answer to my question?"

"No.. I mean, I may have encouraged them a little, but I didn't out right tell them to do that." He hadn't actually even said that much to them. He had told them that there was someone who wanted to talk to them upstairs and they had reluctantly came along.

"I have your number on your personal file."

"I have a-" Next to him Gwen mouthed that she had made him one. He would have to ask her about what exactly she put on there later.

"Any ways, Morgana seems to think she had something to do with this, since she had spoke with the two of them the night before about how the art they did reminded her of the art one of her employees did in her free time. So I guess it could have been the two of you." Gwen once again silently explained that Sandy worked for Morgana.

"Oh..kay..." he was at a loss for words.

"She seems to think she saved my career and is acting very big headed about it and I don't exactly have an excuse to get away." Merlin was so thankful he had gotten coffee with Gwen when she shoved him off the chair and told him to go give Arthur an excuse. He would have to find some way to thank her soon.

Merlin assumed he had gotten his job back, because as soon as he got Arthur away from Morgana he had a list of chores for Merlin to do. And even though he dreaded having to do them, something inside him felt very happy to get to be working for Arthur again.

**{Author's Note: Wow. That took a lot longer than expected. And it was a lot harder to write. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave reviews and tell me what you think.}**


	5. The Mark Of Nimueh

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**The Mark of Nimueh**

Gwen had known Merlin since birth. Their parents had been good friends, and for sometime dated. But then her father Tom got a job in the city working at a small cafe that paid really well. Tom had worked at the small cafe since they had moved to the city, and he eventually became the manager of it. Gwen loved the place, and now that she and Merlin were working in the city she dragged him to it any chance she had. Which wasn't a lot. Morgana may have been nice and given Gwen lengthy breaks, and break time when ever she needed it, but Arthur was not. Thankfully he was on a business trip to Paris for two weeks, which left Merlin with a lot of free time. Gwen also, because Morgana had gone along. The two spent a lot of time working on their college courses, but of course, Merlin did also have to do deliveries for Guy. And he would periodically disappear for hours, and come back covered in paint.

Gwen knew Merlin was good at drawing and painting. She had taken art class with him in high school. She only took one year, because she didn't really have the talent for it, but Merlin seemed like a natural. He took art for the next four years. What Gwen didn't know is why Merlin wouldn't show his art to any of the people in the building. It was three days before Morgana and Arthur returned when Gwen finally asked him.

"Why don't you try and get someone to publicize your work? I mean, I haven't seen any of it since school ended, but it was great back then, and I doubt it's become worse."

Merlin seemed to think about that question for awhile. His answer was a question. "Do you want to go to your father's cafe?"

"...That does not answer my question at all I hope you realize."

"I know... Um.. how about we go get coffee there, and maybe some sort of pastries, and then I'll take you to someone who can explain it better." Gwen didn't really understand what he was talking about, but she decided not to press the issue.

When they got to the cafe Tom was looking worried.

"What's wrong?" were the first words out of Gwen's mouth.

"Afanc, that young artist who does art for our cafe, free of charge because he gets free coffee and whatever else he would like when he come here, has gotten a deal from some scout, so he isn't going to do art for us any more."

"Well, you can always find another artist, and I'm sure you'll do fine, because your coffee and food is still good." Gwen was doing her best to assure her father.

"Afanc is who brings in most of our customers. They like to see and buy his art work. And sometimes he'll come in and graze on food we bring him and paint where people can watch him. Also, a lot of the money we bring in is from his work. He lets us keep half of what he makes. But now that he's with the scout, we would have to pay for his services."

Gwen looked scared, but did her best to be reassuring. "I'm sure you'll be fine dad. You've survived through worse." Her dad didn't look as convinced.

When they left he was still muttering something about how much getting an artist was going to cost.

"I think I might give your dad some of my art."

"To publicize yourself?" Gwen said as she took a sip of her coffee.

"No, I'll probably make up some sort of name. I'll probably use my last name or something."

"If you don't want anyone to know it's you, that would make it a bit obvious." she said. "So where are we going?"

"Room 1105 in the building. We have an old friend there."

"We? Who?"

"Just wait until we get there." they munched on their bagels for awhile before the silence became a bit unbearable. "I suppose I could go by Mryddin. Wasn't that where the name Merlin came from?"

The two discussed names he could go by until they got up to the room. Gwen, who was a bit more perceptive than Merlin, recognized Darci right away. The two talked about what had been happening in their lives while Merlin started painting. Darci's pictures were mostly of people, while Merlin's were more of scenery and animals. There was one that caught Gwen's eyes while she chatted that was of a dragon. The dragon had a mischievous look in the eyes, and when she looked at Darci she noticed that their eyes were the same. The background was some sort of cave, and she noticed that there was a chain on the dragon's legs. There was another picture of a small vile with small purple flowers in it and a medieval laboratory as the background. Then there was one of a deep dark corridor, and a small blue light glowing. The walls of the corridor seemed to have drawings on them, but every time you looked at it from a different angle, the pictures changed. The picture that Merlin was working on was of horses. You could see the movement of them, and the fields in the back ground seemed to be swaying. Darci had stopped talking realizing that Gwen wasn't paying complete attention.

"He's been at this ever since Arthur left. I think I scared him a little to much when I told him not to get involved in the art-business world. So I believe he's trying to get it all out right now. Not that I mind, I really enjoy the company."

Merlin didn't say anything. Gwen knew he wouldn't. When he got wrapped up in drawing it was hard to get him out of it.

Gwen looked around her, there were to drawings side by side. Both were of two lovers embracing. One took place in a forest. It looked like a queen and knight embracing. Around the two of them, stuff was glowing. You could tell they loved each other, but they both looked guilty. Then the painting got darker. The forest seemed to want to keep them in there. Which made sense, because their was a castle far off in the distance. The two some what reminded her of a forbidden love. But forbidden love seemed to be the theme of the other picture. It was a bit erotic, seeing as the pale one in the painting didn't seem to be wearing clothes. The pale boy had blue eyes that looked towards the window in the room with despair in his eyes. His black hair fell around his face, almost covering his eyes. The other man had blonde hair and a regal look to him. This may have been because of the crown on him. He was turned away from the window, focussing more on the smaller man he was holding. The walls of the room were a pale grey, and there were a few candles burning low. Outside of the window was a forest. It seemed vibrant, but something about it was dark. Much like how the castle looked in the other painting.

"Who are those supposed to be?" Gwen said finally turning her eyes away from the painting.

"The knight and the queen are supposed to be Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. Then the other painting is King Arthur and Merlin."

Gwen blinked. "You think Arthur and Merlin had a homosexual relationship?"

"A lot of fans thought Draco and Harry did too. It's just my take on an old story."

"And what happened to his beard?" Gwen said remembering the Disney movie.

"He was in disguise." Merlin said in this amused voice. Gwen looked at the horse picture. It was finished. "Any ways, if you don't mind, we could hang out here until this painting dries, and then I could bring the four of them to your father's shop tonight."

"I'll help you bring them. I really doubt you can carry all four."

"With all the slave work Arthur's been having me do, I almost think I can."

The two ended up working on some class work while Darci started on another picture. When Merlin's painting had dried, Darci had an outline of the picture. It was someone who looked like of mix of Gwen and Queen Guinevere sitting across from someone who looked a lot like Merlin. The girl had laundry in her hands that she was mending, while the boy was polishing armor. Both were smiling and looking at each other in a way that said they loved each other, but they weren't in love with each other.

"That's cute." Gwen said as she picked up two of the smaller paintings.

"Looks a lot like us." Merlin said after staring at it for a few seconds.

"That's why I'll be letting the two of you know when it's finished."

"Thank you." they both said at the same time as they went out the door.

Tom was very thankful for the pictures. By the time Arthur and Morgana were back the pictures at the small cafe were being talked about in the building. Many of the scouts wanted to find who had done the pictures so they could try and get a contract with them. Even Uther had shown some interest, and from the way Arthur was venting about it, Uther expected Arthur to find the artist.

Of course it was Morgana who figured out that Tom was Gwen's father. Gwen became the suspect. As Morgana's assistant it was believed that Morgana would offer her a contract first, but Arthur beat her to it because he came to Gwen when she and Merlin had been enjoying a break. He gave her the contract and said she could give it back to him whenever she was ready. As soon as he was gone Gwen looked ready to burst into tears.

"I'm not an artist."

"I know. What I can't figure out is why you haven't told them it was me."

"I've already told them it wasn't me either, but they don't believe me. But I don't want to drag you into this, because I know you don't want to be an artist. And neither do I. We both want to be teachers." Gwen almost seemed like she was talking to herself.

"But you don't really need to be so distraught about it. I'm sure it'll dissipate soon. Your father will sell the drawings, and then there will be nothing for them to be looking for because there will be no art."

"Morgana offered to fire me." Merlin didn't need to say anything because he knew how much Gwen enjoyed working for her. "She said she 'could' fire me so I could work on painting more. But I love my job, and she's such a nice boss. But really, almost everyone seems to change if there's money that can be made. It's so stressful." Gwen looked really tired.

"Don't worry. I got you into this mess, so I'll get you out of it." he grabbed the contract and went to Arthur's office.

"I did the artwork at Gwen's fathers cafe." Merlin said.

Arthur just snorted. "I can barely read the chicken scratch you call writing. I really doubt you painted that artwork. Now tell me the truth, what is this about?"

"That is what this is about. I drew the artwork, not Gwen. She wants you people to stop hounding her about it, since she didn't do it."

/|\

Arthur always assumes Merlin is in love with Gwen. In some ways, Merlin is always in love with Gwen. But not in the way Arthur thinks he is.

It might be a defense mechanism, or a way for Arthur to convince himself that if Merlin is in love with someone else, Arthur can be to. Even though the two of them usually end up in love with each other in the end.

/|\

Arthur seemed to realize something. "You're in love with her aren't you?"

Merlin just stared. "What?"

"You're in love with Gwen. Part of you is worried about her, but the other part is probably worried that if she gets famous, you won't have a chance. But really Merlin, either way I don't really think you'll have a chance. You really should stop following her around like a love sick little puppy."

Merlin glared. People were always assuming he and Gwen had some sort of romantic relationship. Sometimes they would pretend to, to keep from getting flirted with by people they didn't like, but they had never actually been in a relationship. "Just because we spend time together doesn't mean we're dating. We love each other, but not like that. I just want her to be left alone."

"Merlin, I know you didn't do the drawing. And if Gwen didn't, who did?" Arthur seemed to decide that this conversation was over. "Have you gotten around to cleaning the clothes I took on vacation? If you haven't I suggest you start."

Merlin hadn't started on that, so he reluctantly went to go do them. But about halfway to Arthur's room he remembered he knew an artist who would probably say she did the paintings.

"You know, I think you're worse than Uther. At least he just stomps around and yells a bit. But you pull out the puppy dog eyes and the 'you used to know us and now we're older, but just as stupid and have problems we need you to get us out of and next time I promise I'll think before I do something except I probably won't.' I mean really Merlin, I know people haven't seen my art work for awhile, but you don't think they won't notice that it looks different?"

"You could say its a new style. Or old pictures. It doesn't matter, I'm sure they'll believe you. Plus, you did used to know Tom, so it wouldn't be all that unbelievable."

"Fine. But I hope you realize I won't always be here to fix your messes."

"I know. But... you know I'm really thankful right?" Merlin said feeling a bit bad.

"I know. But you and Gwen should try to visit me more often."

"We will, promise."

So Darci went out and said she did them. And Uther got annoyed. But he still accompanied her to the cafe.

Merlin heard from Arthur that now that Darci had signed them they were worth a lot more. Merlin did his best to pretend that he didn't already know this. Tom would still get a lot of the money. Merlin also heard from Arthur that one of his old employees, Nimueh, had started working at a rival company, and she was quite good at finding new artists. She was the one that scouted Afanc. Merlin also pretended to not know who that was.

On the way to get Gwen so they could visit Darci Morgana confronted Merlin. She also seemed to think that Merlin was in love with Gwen. But she assured him that Gwen probably cared about him to, unlike Arthur. Gwen was unable to come because she wanted to go see her father. Merlin said this was okay, and he didn't mind going alone.

While he was walking up the stairs, Uther stormed down. Uther didn't seem to notice him, and Merlin didn't really care. The man was scary.

Inside Darci's room she seemed a little freaked out. "He's an ass." was all she said before she grabbed a canvas and a sketchbook. She handed the sketchbook to Merlin. "I want you to draw what you see in your dreams in there."

"Why?" Merlin said looking at the sketchbook.

"Because that's what I used to do."

"I'm not you."

"I know. You don't have to if you don't want to." She angrily grabbed a brush and a dark red color. "Uther wants me to do a painting, and he's being more of an ass than usual about it. I'm not giving him any of the ones I like though." The picture of Gwen and Merlin had a nice back ground, but neither of the people were colored yet. "So I'm doing a picture of the majesty himself." The dark red was smeared all across the canvas. "King Uther!" she did some sort of barkish laugh. "Merlin, please tell me if I ever seem to be going crazy." she said turning to look at him with a serious look in her eyes.

"I..." Merlin thought she looked a little crazy. "I'll do my best." was all he could say.

She smiled, then glared and turned back to the picture. "Thanks my dear. Would you make some tea?"

So Merlin did just that. By the time he came back from her kitchen with it there was some sort of menacing figure starting to come alive in the painting. It looked like some sort of king or knight, and he looked very powerful. And a bit evil.

When she stopped to drink her tea she seemed to remember something. "I wanted you to have this." she said before disappearing behind some sort of door to grab something. "It's called 'Coin'." It was a picture of two people. There was a larger blonde one who had an arm around the slightly smaller black haired boy. The blonde appeared to be talking about something, and the black haired boy seemed somewhat uncomfortable. One was in rich looking clothing, and had the same regal personality as the blonde in embrace painting. The other was in more ratty clothes, and had a neckerchief that enchanted Merlin for some reason. "It's one that came to me in a dream. I didn't paint it because I sketched it right when I woke up. Then I out lined it and colored it with some colored pencils. Bt I thought you might like it." she smiled.

"I do. For some reason it seems familiar."

This seemed to make Darci smile more. "Well good then. We can go crazy together."

Merlin just cocked an eyebrow. "What?"

"I don't even know."

This just left Merlin more confused. He decided to leave early though. He still had papers to work on, and he decided getting sleep would be a good idea. His dreams had other plans seeing as they were filled with castles, royalty, and a blonde prince that made his blood boil and his heart flutter at the same time.

When he woke up he filled the sketchbook with three drawing before Guy told him he needed to start doing deliveries or get to working for Arthur. He reluctantly left his sketch book and tried to remind himself to go see Darci when he got the next chance.

**{Author's Note: Please leave reviews. I would really like to know what you thought about the story. It is fun to write, but I am getting a little discouraged. Either way I hope you liked the new chapter, and please keep reading.}**


	6. The Poisoned Chalice

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**The Poisoned Chalice **

Gwen and Merlin have pretended to date since they were little. Of course, when you're four, it isn't really dating. It was usually Gwen coming and forcefully dragging Merlin away from whatever other little kid was trying to kiss him, or Merlin distracting the other boys with a game of tag so then would stop pulling on Gwen's pig tails. In high school, it was going with each other to party's and staying close in case any one tried to cop a feel. There was an incident at a Christmas party when they had to kiss, and that's when they learned that there were no romantic feelings between them whatsoever. But they still pretended there were. So when Gwen and Merlin are invited to some birthday party at a fancy bar by Arthur and Morgana(mostly Morgana, but Arthur said he didn't really care if Merlin showed up) they decided to go as a couple. They being Gwen because she said Owain, some guy who worked for Arthur, had been making eyes at her since forever, and now she had an excuse to blow him off. Merlin went along because Gwen promised she'd go see Darci with him after wards if he came with.

Merlin tended to avoid alcohol as much as he could. Alcohol was bad, and made waking up in the morning extra painful. So he promised Gwen he'd be the responsible one. Of course, Gwen would most likely not drink a lot either, but it still gave him an excuse not to drink.

Merlin ended up finding a nice little dark corner in the bar, and took his sketchbook out to draw. He hadn't had much time to work on the sketchbook, so there were only five sketches in the book. Like Darci had suggested, he drew what he dreamed, but his dreams had slowly became like stories. From what he could tell, most of his dreams took place in some sort of castle. His dreams always had him being someone. He could see out through their eyes, and he could feel their pain. He could also feel the magic that coursed through that person.

Magic.

It was so strange. Everything felt so familiar, but so different. And in his dreams when he used magic, it was so familiar. It wasn't like Harry Potter, with wands and flying broom sticks. He still had to chant words he didn't at all notice, but if he was freaked out enough, it would just happen. The dreams were too clear to ignore, but he hadn't brought them up with anyone. He planned to with Darci, but he hadn't had time to go see her. So he simply drew the parts he remembered clearly in the sketchbook. Which wasn't a lot.

The first was of a woman. She was looking at a child on the floor in front of her as pots and pans and other things from her small house flew around. She looked scared but loving towards the child. The next was of two boys in a deep cave of sorts. The boys were illuminated by a light that was coming off of the palm of one of the boys. The same boy that Merlin seemed to be in the dreams. The third was of a man holding a smaller man by twisting his arm around him. The larger man looked proud, while the smaller man looked annoyed. The forth was of two men sword fighting in armor. One man was the same larger man from the previous picture, but the other was a bit bigger. The larger of the two held out his shield and there appeared to be snakes coming out from it. Yet both men looked confused. The last one was of a girl in an old fashioned prison. The walls were made of stone, and inside it looked very dark. A hand was being reached out towards her and even though she looked really scared, there was hope in her eyes. Or so Merlin thought.

What really scared Merlin is that he also thought he might know the people from the castle in his dreams. He was thinking about talking to Darci about going crazy, because he feared that may have been what was happening to him.

He was starting to sketch a picture of a goblet full of something. In the reflection was a shaky picture of someone who looked a lot like him. The boy looked worried, and a lot like he might throw up. Of course then he saw Arthur starting to come over so he quickly put his book back into the messenger bag he had with him.

"Nice purse." Arthur said with a laugh.

"And how much have you had to drink tonight sir?" Merlin shot back.

Arthur placed some sort of fruity concoction in front of Merlin while he still held a beer in his other hand. "To many. Some chick sent this appletini to me, but I hate the fruity drinks, and seeing as you've been in the corner all night I thought maybe you could use some alcohol."

Merlin just stared at the sparkling thing in front of him. 'Some chick' sounded a little dangerous. Of course, Arthur was not a girl, so no one would slip him a roofie, but then again, it had happened to Merlin before. "Sorry, I'm a designated driver tonight."

"With Gwen right?" Arthur said getting a bit to close to Merlin as he sat down. He already smelled like beer, and some sort of other alcohol, and for a brief moment Merlin worried who was bringing him home, because all of his buddies up at the bar looked just as bad, and some worse, than Arthur. Then again, Arthur didn't look all that bad. His blonde hair that was usually always in place fell around his face messily, but still managed to make him look very attractive. His normal business suit was gone, replaced with a plain button up shirt, and a pair of dark blue jeans that didn't help Merlin convince himself that he didn't have a thing for his boss. Merlin must have took to long answering, because Arthur kept talking. "I didn't think you would have a chance with her. But she's up there telling Owain to back off because she's here with you." Arthur poked Merlin a bit to hard in the chest. "But you're over here doing God knows what, so Owain's still flirting with her. Don't you think you should go get her and mark your territory or something?"

Nineteen years of living with his mother, four years of going to school with Gwen, three months knowing Will's feminist girlfriend, and even a few minutes spent over hearing Morgana vent made Merlin snap a little. "Women aren't objects." Arthur looked a little surprised. "Besides, she's doing fine with Morgana there, so it'd be stupid of me to go over there and flaunt my Y chromosome. And Owain's probably drunk, so it'd would be foolish to anger him." Merlin absent mindedly grabbed the drink Arthur had brought him and took a swig. He had gotten a bit angry, which meant he had forgot he was supposed to be bringing Gwen home.

Arthur laughed. "If I'd known getting you mad would-"

But then Merlin couldn't really hear him any more over the sound of his coughing, and then going unconscious.

/|\

Merlin isn't always trying to save Arthur's life when he gets poisoned. It's just one of those things that has to happen.

But it is usually Arthur's fault that he gets poisoned. And Arthur usually tries to fix what happened as best as he can.

/|\

Arthur was pissed. And really, Arthur was a responsible business man, and he hadn't been pissed since he was thirteen, but there was no other way to explain how he was feeling without explaining his feelings (which Pendragon men don't do) so he was simply pissed.

He was also mad. (They're not the same thing) Mad at so many people at the same time that he almost believed he may have hated everyone in the whole world. Except Gwen. Gwen was the only person he wasn't mad at, because he felt that if he was she might burst into tears and then Morgana would swear revenge on him like she used to when they were kids, and the next thing he would know his whole office would be rebelling against him.

He was mad at Merlin, for going and drinking the thing, because he was supposed to be a designated driver, wasn't he? Merlin should have been more responsible, and he shouldn't have drank the appletini. He was mad at the 911 operator who took forever, and the ambulance that took even longer. He was mad at the people who practically threw Merlin on the stretcher, because they should have been more careful. He was mad at Owain, who still flirted with Gwen as her boyfriend was being wheeled out. He was mad at Morgana for telling him he shouldn't be mad at Merlin. He was mad at the girl who sent him the drink, and stayed mad even after the cops got her to confess that she was paid to do this. He was mad at whoever paid the girl to do it, because she said she didn't know. He was mad at the lie detector for saying that she was telling the truth. He was mad at his personal doctor for being out of town. He was mad at the doctor that ended up doing Merlin's surgery, because he acted far to big headed, All he was doing was pumping a stomach, and even though there were a large amount of rich people waiting for him to fix the patient, that didn't mean he was important. He was mad at his father for telling him that he was showing to much favoritism to his assistant. He was mad at Guy for thinking that Arthur needed to be stuck up for. (Not that mad, because it was fun to see his father get a little flustered.) He was mad that Merlin's mother was away working somewhere, and couldn't come see her son. He was also mad at Darci for coming down to the hospital and making a big deal about not leaving Merlin's side. He was also mad at Darci because she let Gwen stay there also with Merlin, but not him. But mostly he was mad at himself for giving Merlin the drink, and for having these weird feelings he couldn't explain towards Merlin.

Arthur actually hadn't seen Darci for awhile. He saw her for a bit when she gave him the art, but he hadn't really seen her because he had been busy talking with everyone else about how amazing her new art was. He had also seen a bit of her when the Viper twins admitted someone else was doing their work. But she was so busy convincing Uther not to have the two arrested that he hadn't had time to talk with her. And even when she was a the cafe for awhile the most contact he had gotten from her was a busy little wave. So when she stormed into the hospital it was the first time he really saw her.

She was in a green tank top and a loose white skirt that ended right below her knees. Her hair was pulled back into a lazy pony tail. Her eyes looked frantic and worried. She had a large bright green bag with her that had paint stains all over it. With a flick of her wrist and a bit of batting her eyelashes she had the people there wrapped around her pinky finger. They were agreeing to let her and Gwen stay with Merlin until he woke up. And then Guy was using his 'I'm a doctor' excuse so he was also allowed to stay. But everyone else had to leave, but they would be notified when Merlin woke up.

Uther was pleased because Darci had agreed to give a few of the pictures she had done to him because he was letting her stay there. She said they were already signed so Arthur was sent to go get them from her room. Actually, Arthur was told to tell someone to go do that, but he had nothing else to do and felt that he would go crazy if he didn't do something.

Her small apartment was in really bad shape. Her kitchen was absolute chaos, and it appeared that she didn't eat any food she was required to cook. Her stove was covered with books and a sheet in a way to make it a flat surface where she could place stuff. Stuff ended up being different paints, and one or two piles of sketchbooks. There were almost a dozen finished painting stacked against the wall, but none of them had her signature. Then there was a pile of four on a table that had her signature.

The first was of some sort of king. He looked menacing, strong, and some what evil. The dark red as the back ground didn't help with making him look at all friendly. The next was of some sort of ball, or feast of sorts. One side of the inhabitants was in blue clothes, while the other was in red. They all looked very regal. They all also had weapons drawn and appeared to be afraid of something that wasn't shown in the painting. The next two were of people. The first picture was of a man in a red jacket who was smiling in a suggestive way. His eyes seemed to be locked with whoever he was staring at. His smile showed that he was very amused and he almost looked like he was about to laugh, but was holding back. The last picture was of two people standing side by side. One was a dark haired boy in a red hat with feather's protruding from it. He looked embarrassed and annoyed at the same time. The person next to him was a girl in a yellow dress. Her eyes seemed to be laughing, but she has a hand over her mouth so it was not blatantly obvious.

He grabbed the paintings and left to keep himself from going through all of her art work.

After dealing with helping his father get the picture ready to be sold he was pleased to find that Merlin had woke up. He and Morgana went to the hospital together. She thankfully kept any comments she had to herself.

After Morgana made sure Merlin was okay, she, Gwen, and Darci decided to go get coffee. That left Merlin and Arthur alone, and made things a bit awkward.

"So um... thanks for calling 911." Merlin finally said after the silence became unbearable.

"Yeah... It was the least I could do since I got you poisoned." Arthur said sheepishly.

"Well that wasn't your fault. At least you didn't get poisoned, or your father would probably have had me arrested. Did you find out who did it?"

"Someone paid the bartender to. I don't think they were trying to kill me though. Just scare me. Of course, it didn't help that you were allergic to the drug they used."

"Oh...Is that I my file to?"

"I think you would know that more than I would. The doctors figured it out since you were having trouble breathing."

"Yeah well Gwen hasn't told me about it yet so-" Merlin stopped. "I.. well any ways. I'm really grateful, so thank you."

"Yeah..er.. you're welcome."

Thankfully Morgana, Gwen, and Darci came back with coffee. There was also a problem at the office so Morgana, Gwen, and Arthur had to leave. Darci stayed behind.

"I think I'm going crazy." Merlin said as soon as the three left. "While I was unconscious I had this dream where I was unconscious, did magic and saved a Prince named Arthur from giant spiders. Except I didn't remember it all at, but I did. And there was this girl with a turban on her head and some sort of bird lizard thing. But I wasn't even there. I'm...I'm going crazy Darci."

"And so am I. I've had dreams like that since I was little. I would be in this deep dark cave, except I know about everything going on outside of the cave. And there's someone named Merlin who does magic, and I'm a bit of a butt head to him. And I speak in riddles that I don't even understand. The best suggestion I can give you is to draw what you see. That's what I've done. And yes, I've gone a little crazy, and locked myself up in my room, so don't let that happen to you. Just treat them like dreams. And even though they are really clear, try not to let them over take your life. I know I'm not a dragon, and you know you're not a wizard."

"I...But why? Why am I having these dreams?"

"I don't have an answer for you. If I knew, I wouldn't still be having the dreams." Both of them sighed. "Do you have your sketchbook with you?" Darci finally asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, I brought one of mine, so I guess we could draw."

"You're not leaving?" Merlin asked. He was planning on getting a bit of semi-drug induced sleep.

"If you want me to I will. I just... Don't really want to leave." Darci looked a little sad.

"Do you mind if I sleep a little?"

"You were just unconscious and you want to sleep?"

"Well, I want to back to work soon, and sleep is always good. Unless you don't mind sneaking in my computer so I can work on my courses."

Darci laughed. "Sleep. I'll just draw, I mean, it's not like your making any money with your doodles."

"I want to be offended, but I'm too tired."

Merlin fell asleep to the sound of Darci's pencil on paper.

**{Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave reviews so I know people like the story. Also, please keep reading.}**


	7. Lancelot

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**Lancelot**

/|\

Lancelot always saves Merlin's life. And makes everyone who meets him fall in love with him.

/|\

The first time Lancelot saved Merlin's life was at a swimming pool when Merlin was thirteen. Merlin had hit his head against a wall while he was swimming to fast, and Lancelot had dove in, fished him out, and gave him mouth to mouth. The next time was when he got sick at fifteen, and Gwen was still forcing him to go to a school dance with her. Lancelot had offered to go with instead, so Merlin got to stay home. Merlin's fever had gone up that night, and he had to go to the hospital. If he hadn't been at home, he didn't know how he would have gotten to the hospital. There were a few times where Lancelot would help him study, or fix his car, or save him from getting beaten up by people who didn't really like skinny smart guys. Merlin would still call him a lifesaver, because to Merlin he was. Lancelot was only two years older than Merlin, but he was still one of Merlin's biggest heroes.

Gwen and Lancelot were an on and off couple. Because Gwen was two years younger than him, Lancelot never wanted to rush things. They would usually last for two to three month intervals before Gwen would get fed up and break up with him. Lancelot was very cute, but in Gwen's opinion very prudish. Merlin disagreed with her opinion, but would never tell her why.

Lancelot had graduated high school at 17, and went to college to be a physical trainer. Merlin and Gwen kept in touch with him for a few months, but they eventually lost his number, and Lancelot never answered the e-mails they would send.

_He nudged the girl by him, "If you had to choose between Lancelot or Arthur who would you choose?"_

_The girl laughed. "I'll never have to make that decision."_

_"You'll need this." the old man in robes said. _

_"Thanks." he and the more muscular man by him drank the vile tasting liquid._

_He muttered some unknown words and the spear the knight was holding began to glow. The eagle-lion charged towards the knight at the same time the knight charged towards it. _

_The knight knew his secret, but he wouldn't tell and he was leaving. Why was he leaving? He was watching from a high part of the castle as the man rode off on a horse. _

Merlin woke up from the dream shaking. He reached for his sketchbook and began sketching the eagle-lion and the knight charging toward each other in the forest. When he was finished his alarm clock read 3:54AM. He didn't know if Darci would be awake or not, but he still felt himself lazily walking to her room.

She was awake, and she was finishing a painting of two men sitting atop a table at some sort of gathering. They were in armor, and one had his arm around the other. They looked cheerful, and the colors in the back ground succeeded in making the painting look happy. But that wasn't what made Merlin interested in the painting. In his dream when he had been talking to the girl, those were the two men they were looking at.

"That's Arthur and Lancelot." Merlin said in a hushed tone.

Darci looked surprised. "Yeah... How did you know?"

"That was in my dream. Exactly that. The poses, the smiles, the clothes, the background, the mood, the colors, it was all there."

The two just stared at each other when finally Darci said quietly, "They were in mine too. "

So both went through the dreams they had, and a lot of Darci's more recent dreams matched Merlin's. Some of her older ones, about a sorceress, a maidservant, a queen that couldn't have children, a jilted manservant, and a demented but loving king did not match Merlin's dreams. But then she brought out the pictures, and the maidservant looked like a younger version of the woman Merlin had drawn with the young boy. The manservant looked like the physician that was in Merlin's dream, who had given him the nasty tasting liquid to drink. The king looked like a younger version of the overlord Darci had given to Arthur to sell. And even the sorceress seemed a little familiar to Merlin, like the servant who had been in Merlin's dreams when he was unconscious. But the queen was unfamiliar. He had never seen anyone like her in any of his dreams, and he didn't have a creepy feeling about her.

The two talked for awhile, but Darci went back to finishing her painting, and Merlin fell asleep on the couch.

He was woken up by his cell phone ringing, which was weird because he didn't remember bringing it with. "Where are you?" came Gwen's frightened voice.

"Why?" Merlin says groggily.

"Because Arthur is about 5 minutes away from organizing a search party, and if you're gone just because you fell asleep some where, he will probably fire you, or humiliate you in some sort of horrible way."

"I fell asleep in Darci's apartment." he said rubbing his eyes.

"You better make up a better excuse than that." Gwen sighed. "I mean really Merlin, you've actually been doing pretty good at this job. And I know you got poisoned and everything, but-"

"I know Gwen. I'll be there in a sec." He looked down and realized he was still in sweat pants and a ratty t-shirt.

Darci, who had heard half of the conversation was holding out a turtle neck and a pair of loose grey slacks. Merlin went to her bathroom and quickly changed into them. "Are these your clothes?" he said because the pants were a little tight, and the shirt was a little loose in the chest area.

"Yeah, but I'm sure they'll work. You can change out of them after you get your chores."

"Right." then he raced out of her apartment and down the stairs. He had five stairs left before he'd be to the elevators when he tripped and flew into the wall.

He woke up in Guy's room, on a couch with an ice pack on. Arthur, Morgana, Gwen, Guy, and a man with dark brown hair and a chiseled body were there. Arthur and Morgana were on their computers, Guy and Gwen were organizing something, and the man was helping him. Then Merlin recognized him. It had been four years, but he wouldn't forget someone who had saved his life so many times. "Lancelot?" he said quietly.

All five of the people heard him and looked up from what they were doing. Lancelot was by Merlin first. "Are you okay?"

Merlin nodded. "My head kind of hurts, but I'm fine. What happened?"

"You fell down the stairs." Arthur said sounding annoyed. "Because you were running down them because you were late. I'm mean, am I really asking for to much to have a responsible employee? Or are you just accident prone?"

"Accident prone." Lancelot said.

Gwen laughed. "I have to agree with Lancelot."

Arthur did not look amused. "Well, if you're fine you can do your normal chores, and in addition to that you can wipe the base boards, dust the fans, wipe the window tracts, and water the plants. " then he stormed out.

"I have some business to attend to." Morgana said. "When you finished with your work you go on early break. There's a small party here tonight, so I won't need your help." Morgana looked over at Lancelot. "So you could go out to dinner or something." She winked at Gwen and walked out.

"What are you doing here?" Merlin asked looking up at Lancelot.

"Oh, I was the one who found you in a crumbled pile at the bottom of the stairs." Lancelot said with a laugh.

"No, I mean what are you doing here in the building?"

Gwen blinked. "Did I forget to tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Merlin said as he sat up and rubbed his head.

"I work here. As a personal trainer. So if people want a work out while they're not working they can come and get one, or for the people living in the building like Arthur and Morgana."

"You're Ar-"

"Yes, he's Arthur's personal trainer." Gwen interrupted him. "And no he can't get a picture of Arthur shirtless for you."

Merlin blushed. "I wasn't going to ask for that. Why would I ask for that? What makes you thing I'd ask for something like that? I mean really, do you think I'm like that? Why would you think that?" A habit that Merlin had from his childhood was asking lots of questions when he got nervous or embarrassed.

"I was joking." Gwen said laughing.

"Well, I have a few businessmen coming in soon for a scheduled work out, so I have to be going." Lancelot waved. "I'll see you later."

As soon as he was gone Gwen became serious. "I know you like Arthur. You don't have to be all secretive about it. I mean, I was the first person you told when you learned that you were bi. It's not like I was going to be surprised. I mean the chemistry between the two of-"

"I don't like him Gwen. And even if I did, I'd be telling myself I didn't so I didn't do something unprofessional."

"Oh." Gwen got the hint.

"So what's going on with you and Lancelot?" Merlin asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Don't you have chores to do for Arthur? Cause I know I have stuff I need to do for Morgana, so..."

Merlin laughed.

"I'm serious. He did seem really annoyed, and I bet if-"

"No, that's not what it's about. I just realized..." Merlin was having a hard time speaking because he was laughing. "All of our names... and... but, you're not a queen, but what if you cheated on Arthur with...."

"What? Arthur and I aren't together, so there wouldn't be a way for me to cheat on him. Are you okay?"

Merlin finally stopped laughing. "You're Gwen."

"Yes Merlin, that is my name."

"No I mean, you're Gwen, and there's a Lancelot, and an Arthur, and even a Morgana which is pretty close to Morgan le Fay. And I mean, I doubt Morgana is an enchantress, and she's not Arthur's sister, and you're not a queen, but Lancelot is brave and kind of noble, and Arthur's certainly got the 'I own everything and am the boss' like a king would."

"And where do you fit in Merlin? Are you a magician?"

"No, but don't you think it's kind of creepy how the names match up?"

"Mmm... not really. I mean, Arthur is a fairly common name. So is Gwen. Morgana's father was a very creative man, so it's no surprise that she has a fancy name. Lancelot's parents were actors on Broadway when he was born, so something dramatic like Lancelot isn't really that big of a shock. And your mom said she named you after a bird, not a wizard."

"Yeah I guess you're right." But for the rest of the day while Merlin did the chores he couldn't stop thinking about his namesake, and the namesakes of the people around him. Eventually he started to get a head ache, so he stopped. But the head ache wouldn't go away. By the time he finished Arthur's chores he was exhausted. It was only 6PM, so he decided to go get some coffee and his laptop and bring it to Darci's so he could work while she painted. He was hurrying up the stairs when he suddenly slipped on something and fell. He fell to the bottom of the stairs, felt the hot coffee in one hand spill on one side, and the iced coffee in his other hand spill on the other side. He hit his head on the ground pretty hard, but thankfully stayed conscious. Of course, when he tried to stand up, there was pain in his ankle. He didn't feel like yelling for help so he grabbed his cell phone and started making calls. Gwen didn't answer. Guy didn't answer. Darci didn't have a phone. Aside from his mother and Will, the only other number he had in his phone book was Arthur's. But he was at that party thing. He waited for awhile, but no one came down the stairs. It seemed like hours had passed, so he finally called Arthur. His leg hurt, and he could find another job if he needed to.

"What is it Merlin?" came the annoyed voice on the other line.

"I.. I fell down the stairs again, and my leg hurts if I move it. Gwen won't answer her phone, so could you please send someone to come get me?"

There was no answer on the other line for awhile. Finally there was a sigh. "Where are you?"

"Umm...second flight of stairs at the bottom." Arthur then hung up. So Merlin waited. Ten minutes later Arthur was there.

"I..." Merlin was surprised to see him. "I kind of spilled coffee on me."

"I can see this." Arthur helped lift Merlin up and helped support a lot of his weight. "Are you eating?" he suddenly asked.

Merlin sighed. He hated how people thought he was anorexic or bulimic, or had some sort of disease just because he was skinny. He usually wore baggy clothes to keep people from making these comments, but it was usually obvious if they had to support you. Like Arthur was now. "Yes."

Arthur seemed to hear the annoyance, so he changed the subject. "What did you trip on?"

"I couldn't tell. I was busy falling." Arthur just rolled his eyes at Merlin. He looked around.

"It's a toy." he said motioning towards a toy truck that was on one of the steps.

"Where did it come from?" Merlin said. He liked little kids, but if it was also what he slipped on this morning he was going to find the little kid and give him a wedgie.

"I think Geoffrey brought his son Griffin with him today. I believe it was bring your kid to work day, or something. But Griffin got bored and ran off for awhile. He came back, but some of his toys were gone." Arthur looked at Merlin. "So do you want me to bring you to Guy's?"

"Don't you have a party thing?" Merlin said as Arthur started walking toward the elevators. Of course, there was a flight of stairs, so it was a little hard.

"Yes, but you made a great excuse for me to leave." Merlin was about the say something, but their legs got tangled up with each others, and Arthur had to brace himself against a wall to keep from falling down the stairs. That left Merlin trapped between Arthur and a wall. Then there was awkward silence. The untangled themselves and refused to look each other in the eye even when they got to Guy's. Merlin ended up having a sprained ankle, but Guy assured that after a good night's rest, Merlin would most likely be operational the next morning. Arthur didn't look that happy to be going back to the party, but he did any way. Merlin spent the rest of the night working on class courses. Then he decided to find out what an eagle-lion was called. When the search told him it was a Griffin he nearly threw his computer against the wall.

**{Author's Note: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and please leave reviews. I think I will start explaining Merlin's dreams more if it doesn't bother you guys, please tell me what you think though. And unlike the series, Lancelot will be a re-occuring character.} **


	8. A Remedy to Cure All Ills

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**A Remedy To Cure All Ills**

_"He will unite Albion alongside Arthur. Their time cannot come until Uther's has passed." _

_The old man was gone then, hobbling up the stairs. Darci wanted to help. The Dragon wanted to kill Uther. And be free. Sadly, this was the dragon's world, so Darci made no such move towards doing so. _

_Darci was lonely. It was so dark in this cave. So lonely. She knew she was the only dragon in a kingdom that hated magic. Merlin was the only one who came and visited the dragon. But even he came because he needed something. _

_She was so alone. _

Darci woke up shaking and near tears. She hated the dreams because they were so empty. She felt so alone in those dreams. Merlin had dreams to, but he wasn't locked up in a dark cave.

So she did what she always did after a dream like that. She grabbed a canvas and started painting. The painting was of a fire. A young boy was running towards it. It was a much more depressing picture then her other ones. She only used a few colors, and the painting was done in only 3 hours. Usually she spent more time on her drawings, but this one scared her. She made herself some tea. Living in an apartment by herself had been lonely, but then Merlin showed up. She loved when he came to visit.

Her job was to do art, and she could do that from inside of her home. It also meant she lost track of time. She made sure to eat when she was hungry and sleep when she got tired. The rest of the time was usually spent painting. Day and Night didn't mean anything to her anymore. She sipped on her tea and looked for the 'Work' picture. The picture was almost finished. A mocha colored girl in a yellow dress sat across the table from a pale dark haired boy with a red scarf. The girl was working on a velvety purple dress, while the boy was polishing swords and armor that already shined like bright silver. They were sitting at a dark mahogany table, and behind them was a window where the sun was shining through. All Darci had left to do was their faces. She wanted them to be smiling and talking like they were enjoying themselves, but she hadn't been able to draw that yet. She was inspired by Merlin and Gwen to draw this, but lately the Merlin she saw was tired or wary because of his dreams. And Gwen had yet to visit. She decided to picture the two in her minds eye. She sat against her couch and closed her eyes.

She thought it had only been for a moment, but when she opened her eyes again her tea was cold, and the room seemed a little brighter. Someone was also knocking on her door. Which was strange, because Merlin usually announced himself, and just came in because she had given him a key. Uther did the same, because he to had a key, and he usually came to complain. And those were the only two who usually visited her. Arthur had been in her room once to get art, but she hadn't been there because she was busy worrying about Merlin. She sighed and got up. She looked down at her clothes. She was wearing baggy boxer shorts with hearts all over them, and a green shirt with some witty comment that she had thought was funny. Her hair was messy and curling in awkward angles. But she got up and went to the door any way because she could just use the 'I'm a quirky artist' excuse.

At the door was Morgana, and a young red headed man. "Hello Darci." Morgana said in this way that made it seem that Morgana was here all the time. But this was the first time in years that Morgana had been up to her rooms. Morgana used to come all the time when she was younger. She would color sketches that Darci didn't really care about, and she would talk to Darci. Then she started high school, and it had been nearly nine years since she had seen her aside from parties or magazine covers.

"Morgana..." she said warily.

"Can we come in?" Morgana said with a smile. "This is Edwin. He's a big fan of yours and would love to see some of your more recent work."

"You must be an artist who they're trying to sign." Darci said looking at Edwin. "They never visit me."

Edwin laughed. "You trapped here?"

"Maybe. But by my own accord." Darci smiled. Edwin was interesting. "My room is kind of a mess right now. But I'll do my best to clean it. How about the next time bring some of your work? I'd love to see it. And by then my room will probably be clean. It will also give me time to find some good art under all the clutter."

Edwin had a very nice smile. His eyes twinkled and he had dimples. He was young. Inexperienced. She silently hoped that he didn't sign with Morgana. "Okay. I'd like that."

They left, with Morgana looking a bit put off that she didn't get her way. Edwin looked happy though, so Morgana would probably end up signing him. This made her sad. He seemed so nice. His smile helped her finish the 'Work' picture. She really didn't want to clean up her house. Everything was where she wanted it. Even if it was messy. But she decided to go through her art work. She had a lot of new and old paintings that she should start organizing. Now that she had been releasing some pictures, she would probably have to give more. So she decided to do piles of what she was willing to give away, and what she wasn't. But she still felt a little tired, so she decided to get more sleep.

She was woken up by Uther.

"This place is a mess."

"Nice to see you to sir. May I ask why you decided to bless me with your presence?" she said rubbing her eyes.

"You need to release some more work. You haven't for five years, and now you've been giving them away to people. I'm your manager, and I need to look like I have some control over the situation."

"Control?" Darci was angry. "You have control over everything I do."

"No. If I had control over everything you did, all of your paintings would be signed. And you would actually listen." Uther was being a controlling bastard, but his face didn't even change. "But you still need to release more. Your room is full of paintings that you do nothing with, it's beco-"

"I know." Darci was sick of him already. If giving up a few paintings would make him leave her alone she would part with a few. "I'm going to go through them and decided which ones I don't need."

"Need? You don't need any of them. You just keep them because you know it annoys me."

Damn. He had her pegged. Time to throw him off. "I think I'm going crazy." Darci admitted.

"Well, you have your own room to do it in. And lots of artist were crazy. If you cut of your ear try not to let it bleed everywhere." Uther was joking around with her. Like they used to when she was first starting out. But she wasn't 19 any more, and Uther wasn't her nice manager with two cute little kids.

"If that's all sir, then I'd like it if you left."

If Uther ever showed her emotion he probably would have looked a little hurt. But he didn't so he just left. But he slammed the door on the way out, and Darci counted that as a small victory.

She spent about five hours in her bathroom. That's where she kept a lot of her older paintings. There were seventeen paintings in that bathroom. She decided to give away fourteen of them. They were mostly of women in dresses, or a royal but sad looking family. There were a few of knights fighting, and one of a king and knight fighting.

She liked the three that she kept. One was of two pregnant women. One was in a beautiful dress, that was flowing around the floor. The other was standing behind her braiding flowers into her hair. She was in more ratty clothes, but she looked just as beautiful as the other woman. Both were pregnant. The one who looked like a Queen had a hand on her belly and looked hopeful but scared. The one who looked like a servant looked remorseful but proud. In the background were hazy pictures of what Darci had assumed were the men that their babies would grow up to be. One had blonde hair and a broader shape than the other, who had black hair. They reminded her of the prince and servant Darci had been drawing lately. The two women had been in her dreams years ago. Those dreams were sad. The servant's child conception had not been wanted, but when the child came she ended up loving him. The queen had died giving birth to her son. Those were the dreams that made her wake up crying. Of course now her dreams were of the two boys when they were older, and even though everything didn't go perfectly, she didn't wake up crying.

The next picture was of a young man with light brown hair helping a man with dark blonde hair get dressed. The light haired boy was obviously a servant, while the dark haired one was most likely some sort of royalty. He reminded Darci of some sort of Prince. The light haired boy was shorter. He was tying a cape around the prince's shoulders, and looking up at him through his eyelashes. Their eyes were locked, and you could tell that they were saying good bye to something they had. In her dreams, the two had been lovers. But the prince was getting married so he could be king. And the servant knew that what they had was ending. Darci had woke up broken hearted and cried while she painted the picture. She had still been young then, and the pain felt so real. As time went by it got easier. But sometimes it still hurt.

The last one she wanted to keep was of three women. There was the servant and the queen from the pregnant picture, but there was also a dark haired woman. The servant was once again braiding the Queen's hair, but the neither were pregnant. The dark haired woman was braiding the servant's hair, and the dark haired woman's hair was being braided by glittering lights. In Darci's dream it had been magic. The dark haired woman was in a beautiful red dress. The queen was in a light blue dress, and the servant was in a dark green dress. They were in some sort of forest filled with flowers. The queen was sitting on a tree stump, with the servant standing behind her, and the dark haired woman standing behind the servant. That was a good dream, and it was easy to see because the painting glowed because of the vibrant colors. In later dreams, the dark haired woman was nearly killed by the Queen's husband because the Queen died. The servant ran away to a small little town. The King became bitter, and his old manservant became a physician. And every time Darci woke up she hoped it would get better.

She was busy signing her names on the paintings when Merlin came in with food.

"Looks yummy." she said with a smile, but she took ten minutes to finish signing her paintings before she went to get some food. This did not affect Merlin at all. He appeared to be deep in thought. "What?" she said as she grabbed a container of 'tofu something' and some chopsticks.

"Hmm?" Merlin said as he reached for some sort of broccoli mush.

"You're all... deep in though." She said before shoving a large piece of tofu in her mouth.

"Does Gwen ever come up here to talk to you?" Darci shook her head. "And if she did, will you promise not to tell her what I'm about to tell you?" Darci nodded. "Good. Okay..." Merlin put some food in his mouth and chewed for what seemed like forever. "I was coming up to see you a few days ago when I tripped and fell. Arthur came and got me and on the way down the stairs we lost our footing and I was stuck between him and a wall. And it was loads of awkward. And now we can't look each other in the eyes, and he keeps leaving me lists of stuff to do instead of telling me, and... I don't know. I mean, this is probably normal employer/employee etiquette, but I miss him telling me what to do and being an ass about it."

"Because you like him?" Darci said in a sing-song voice. "Because you like it when he's an ass to you?"

Merlin blushed. Which looked really really cute. So much that Darci wanted to do a picture about it. "I... I don't know. Maybe..." he looked really guilty. "But, that's really unprofessional, so I should really just suck it up right?"

Darci didn't really know what to say. In her younger days she had wanted to go into business once she was done being an artist. But she never really got to, so she didn't know what was and wasn't professional. But something told her Arthur and Merlin belonged together. She swore she almost heard someone say destiny, but she ignored it. Because that reminded her to much of her dreams. "You should bring it up with him. Not your feelings towards him, but maybe casually mention that he's not being specific enough in the notes and it's be easier if he just told you. I don't really know sweetie, I'm an artist, not a businessman."

Merlin seemed to accept this answer. They spent the rest of the time eating. Merlin looked like he wanted to talk about something but he decided not to. He had forgotten his sketchbook and laptop so he ended up leaving early. Darci got out her paints and painted Merlin blushing. She decided to keep it and give it to Arthur one day soon. Maybe for his birthday.

She ended up spending the rest of the night cleaning her room. There was an insane amount of trash, and way to many paint stains every where. But she decided to do the whole apartment, because she knew if she didn't finish it now she would never do it again because the experience was so terrible. It took her until the next morning to finish. She about to collapse on the bed when Merlin rushed in.

"Dream. Bad." he made out. He was shaking. He also seemed to be panting.

"Did you run all the way up here?" Darci asked with a yawn. He nodded then looked around.

"You clean?"

"Yes. But tell me about the dream. And sit down, you look like you're about to fall over."

"Well...it's freaking me out because, I killed someone in it. It.. it was really scary. They threw this weapon at me and I threw it back at them. And they died. And..." Merlin was still shaking. He whispered, "That person is here."

"What?"

"In my dream, he's here. They have the same name. The only thing that's different is that in my dream he has a scar. Like a burn." Darci suddenly thought of the picture of the little boy running towards the fire. She shuddered. "And he's taking Guy's job. Just like in my dream."

"What?"

"Edwin found a painting that Guy did in a coffee shop. When Uther found out that Guy was painting again he wanted Guy to keep painting, because Uther still had him in a contract. And Guy didn't actually do the painting I did it for a friend of Guy's but Guy was nice enough not to tell Uther that. Guy had protested about how he needed to be the physician, but Edwin a physician too, and younger than Guy so Uther's thinking about hiring him and having Guy be an artist again except Guy didn't even do the painting." Merlin was practically whimpering.

"Yeah, I got that already. You've said that twice."

"But if Guy loses his job I'll have to find some where else to stay and that will cost money. And any way, in my dream Edwin was taking Guy's job to, and then he tried to burn Guy to death, and I came in and killed him. But I can't kill someone. That's... that's..." Merlin was shaking again.

"I think you should go get dressed and work. And just forget about the dream okay? Every thing's going to be fine, and I'm sure Uther won't fire Guy. He's not a complete idiot." Darci tried to sound reassuring and it kind of worked. Merlin did leave, and as soon as he was gone she fell asleep on the couch. She would go say she did the painting when she woke up, and fix everything again.

Except she slept for almost twelve hours. When she woke up Guy and Uther were there.

"I told you it was just fatigue." Guy said in his famous 'I-told-you-so' voice.

Uther just grunted. He motioned towards the table. "Those signed ones are mine." Uther was never one to ask for something, so Darci had expected this much. Darci just nodded. "I'll send someone to pick them up later." and with that he was gone.

Darci hadn't seen Guy since Merlin came. He would usually bring her medicine for her. She would usually be painting or sleeping, so he would just slip in and slip out. When she had first moved into the building they had been close. Both were artists, who thought Uther was amazing. Of course Guy ended getting hurt, and he stopped painting. He and Uther had been friends, so Uther had understood. She hadn't seen much of him after that aside from when he brought medicine.

"You still have your job then?" she said lazily.

Guy grinned. "You must have been talking with Merlin. I never didn't have it. Uther's a bit suspicious about who painted the picture, but he knows I haven't done any art in years, and I'm not planning on doing any now. Plus Edwin wasn't at all qualified enough. Merlin ended able being able to convince him to go back to school. I'm trying to figure out what Merlin did to Edwin though, because he looked guilty the whole time."

"It's not what he did it's what he saw." she said quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"He and I might be going crazy. We're not sure yet though."

Guy just laughed. "You just need some rest. And you should try eating more okay? And you didn't need to clean your whole apartment. We do have people for that if you would've asked."

"MmHmm..." Darci said lazily. "I'm still tired."

"Then sleep. I have other stuff to do."

Darci closed her eyes and when she lazily opened them again Guy was gone. But thankfully she didn't feel as lonely as she did when she woke up from dreams of being a dragon.

**{Author's Note: I wanted to do one that dealt with my favorite things. Darci's art, and hinting towards Arthur/Merlin. I noticed that I'm usually so serious in my author's notes, so I just wanted to thank everyone who reviews. You guys are the only reason this story is still going. I'm hoping you're enjoying the story, and please leave reviews.}**


	9. The Gates of Avalon

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**The Gates of Avalon**

Merlin really really likes Sophia. Not in the way that Arthur likes her, and not because she's really pretty, and charming, and has almost everyone wrapped around her finger. He likes her because she helps him be a professional. With Arthur taking every opportunity to flirt with Sophia, Merlin is rest assured that Arthur is 100% straight and wouldn't at all be interested in Merlin.

But then Sophia tasers Merlin, and he doesn't really like her all that much any more.

It started with Morgana having a dream. She told Gwen about it when she woke up. She had dreamed that Arthur had been drowned by a woman. When Darci gave Gwen the 'Work' picture for her home, Gwen had sat and had tea with the two of them. When Darci mentioned that her dreams usually give her ideas for the paintings, Gwen had mentioned Morgana's nightmare. As curious as Darci and Merlin were about someone else having dreams like theirs, they shook it off when Gwen mentioned that in Morgana's dream it happened in a pool. In Merlin's dream it had been a lake. And it was the prince once again. The prince that was slowly starting to remind him of Arthur. Darci's dreams were about being alone in the cave again, but she had started painting a picture of a young woman a a beautiful velvety purple dress waking up from nightmares. Gwen and Merlin had to get back to work, and Darci once again stayed in her room.

Merlin was cleaning Arthur's room when Arthur came in with Sophia. They stayed in the living room and didn't seem to notice Merlin in Arthur bedroom. They were laughing and talking. Something in Merlin's heart hurt a little, but he ignored it. He was happy for Arthur, because she was really pretty. When she left she kissed Arthur on the cheek.

"I knew you were slow Merlin, but I didn't think it took you that long just to clean one room." Arthur said leaning against the door frame.

"I..You knew I was here the whole time? Why didn't you tell me to leave or something?"

"I was talking with Sophia, that would have been impolite."

Merlin quirked an eyebrow, "And me listening from the other room isn't?"

Arthur just thumped his head. "Do you have a sarcastic remark for everything?"

"Usually." Merlin said with a playful smile. Arthur rolled his eyes. "So who's Sophia?"

"She a friend from elementary school. She's also a wonderful artist, and she did a big set that we're going to be showing here for the next three nights." Arthur sounded like he was bragging, so Merlin had to ask.

"Is she your client?"

"Yes, I scouted her when I was first staring out. She's one of my most reliable clients, and a good friend of mine."

"Mmm." Merlin said pretending not to care any more.

"Well, when you're finished with cleaning the apartment you can go help Guy or something." With that Arthur left.

Later that night Merlin was in Darci's room with his sketchbook as she finished the painting of the woman sleeping. The woman's bed was more intricate now. The canopy that fell around the black bed spread she was sleeping on became spider webs around the bottom. And inside of the parts of the canopy that were not spider webs there were hazy figures that were most likely the woman's dreams.

"The fact that he's with her shows that he would be willing to have a relationship with his employees. So as soon as she's gone, I say go for it." Darci said as she turned away from the finished picture.

"It also shows that he's straight."

"Or bi like you." Darci said cheerfully.

"... How did you know? I mean I know I told you how I liked Arthur...maybe, but wouldn't that say I was gay?" Merlin said a little confused.

Darci committed the confused face to memory so she could use it later, then replied, "Everyone's a little bi Merlin. It's easier to just call everyone that instead of having to worry about calling them straight or gay. Then they can correct me if I'm wrong."

"Are you going to go see her art work?" Merlin said wanting to change the subject.

"Probably not. If you haven't notice I don't really leave my apartment."

"How come?" Merlin looked up at Darci. She looked uncomfortable, as if she didn't really know how to answer the question. "Er.. well, personal reasons right?" he quickly changed the subject again. "I have a few more drawings in my sketchbook, if you want to see them..."

"Sure." Darci said looking a lot more comfortable.

He showed her the picture of the woman, the boys, the blonde and the brunette fighting, the two knights fighting, the girl in the prison, and the knight charging at the Griffin. She had seen most of them before. He knew she hadn't seen the last two, so he let her hold the book. The first was of a boy using magic to clean up some sort of powder into a bowl while a man with a scarred face watched him. It was the same man that Merlin killed in his dreams, so he didn't really like the picture. In the next picture the same boy was coming up from under water holding on to the prince from his dreams. Merlin still remembered waking up from that dream shaking. And that hadn't been the first night. The first night he had the dream, but he was forever running through a deep dark forest trying to get some where. The dream last night let him know he was trying to get to the prince and save him. He hoped the dreams about the lake would stop soon, because he was becoming more and more shaken after every dream.

He got his wish that night. His dreams were about getting food thrown at him. He woke up feeling like he needed to take a shower, even though he had taken one the night before. That day Arthur was gone all day. Gwen was busy helping Morgana and Arthur plan a big event that was happening tomorrow at some fancy country club. The only good thing about this was that Merlin got the day off tomorrow. He was planning on calling his mother and Will and see how everyone was doing, because he hadn't talked to them since he left. Merlin spent most of the day helping out around the building. He didn't really mind because it gave him something to do. That night when he was helping Guy, Arthur came in carrying Sophia. She had hurt her ankle. Guy checked on it but he said nothing was wrong. Sophia still looked worried, and was acting a bit frantic, but Arthur got her to calm down. His face looked a lot different then normal. It was softer and kinder. It made Merlin's heart ache, and butterflies in his stomach at the same time. Eventually they left with Sophia still clutching onto Arthur's shirt. Guy looked at him like he expected him to say something, but instead Merlin went up to Darci's room.

Darci looked tired. "What have you been doing all day?" he asked as he went to make tea. It had become sort of a ritual of sorts that they would sit and drink tea, talk about their art work, the dreams they had been having, and worry that they might be going crazy.

"I was going through my art."

Merlin looked around. The room was slowly making it's way back to being messy, but only because of all of the piles of art. "All of it?"

"Up until you started working here. And the embrace pictures, because I'm not giving that pair away. They seem to important."

"How much was there?" he said as he put the pot on top of her newly cleared off stove.

"About five years worth. Uther's going to be using it in the show they're having tomorrow. He's showcasing me, Arthur's showcasing Sophia, and Morgana's putting the whole thing together."

"She's not using any of her people?"

"Well, Sophia's been Arthur's client since he first started out. And I've been Uther's. So that's probably a bit of the theme."

Merlin had worked for awhile now, but he had never heard of Sophia until this week. "Do you know Sophia?"

"Not really. She came into the business about three months before I stopped putting work out, so I had only heard of her. She doesn't spend a lot of time here. She's a lot like me. Except she didn't wait five years. She comes out with big art shows about every year." Darci sighed quietly.

"Why did you wait five years? I mean I've only seen Uther a few times, but he doesn't seem like the most patient type." Merlin looked at Darci and immediately regretted asking the question. Her faced looked pained and she looked nervous. "Er... I.. never mind... What kind of tea do yo-"

"I tried to commit suicide." Darci said sounding a lot smaller and weaker than she usually did. "I...the dreams, and the demands, and everything became to much. I was lonely and afraid and stupid, and I can't believe I did it." she looked really uncomfortable. "My wrists were bleeding and I was nearly passed out and... I..." she looked near tears. "Arthur..." she was practically whispering. "He was coming to tell me about how he finally had a steady job, and how he had finally made his father proud of him, and instead he found me almost dead on my couch. It was the first time he had come to visit me in about seven months. He hasn't come to see me, ever, since then. I think I make him uncomfortable. I understand that, but back when I was first starting out living here, I loved his visits. And even as they took longer and longer..." Merlin was already at her side. She fell into his arms and quietly sobbed. "I never see anyone any more, and I'm afraid to leave my apartment, because then I'll see how the world is, and my dreams are already bad enough as they are, I don't need to know about what actually is going on." That's when Merlin first really realized that she didn't have a phone, or television, or computer. "I mean, when I went and gave Arthur the art I left there as soon as I could, because some of those people used to know me before I... tried to kill myself. Having to meet the Viper twins was hard, because they were fans of the old me. Not the crazy one who locks herself up in her room. I could barely go to Tom's cafe, and I couldn't stop shaking on the way there. The only time I wasn't freaked out about leaving was when you had to go to the hospital. I was so scared. I didn't stop thinking about you and how you could be gone until you woke up. And as soon as you left the hospital I was back up in my room." she was taking deep breathes and still crying into Merlin's shirt. "I'm supposed to go to the fancy country club tomorrow, and meet and see people, and act like I'm not a screwed up person, even though I am."

Merlin lightly stroked her hair. "You're not a screwed up person. You're a beautiful, kind hearted woman, who is the most amazing artist I've ever met."

She looked up at him through blood shot eyes. "Will you come with me?"

"Any where." he said glad to see that she wasn't really crying any more.

"I mean to the country club. You can be my one plus."

Merlin didn't want to go and have to act respectable when he really wanted to be at home in a loose shirt and his boxers, but this was Darci, who always helped him out. "Of course. But I don't really have that nice of dressy clothes."

That's how they ended up at a 24 hour Saches looking for clothes for Merlin and Darci. The blonde there looked at the two like she thought they might try to steal something. Which made sense since Darci's eyes were blood-shot and Merlin was completely uncomfortable in the store. But Darci had brought along money that she kept in a drawer in her room. It was old and crumbled and Merlin wondered how long it had been in there.

Merlin ended up getting a dark blue dress shirt, grey slacks, and black dress shoes. Darci got black Mary Janes, a green dress that ended below her knees, and a thin white jacket. It costed an insane amount of money, and Merlin was going to keep it as clean as possible so he could re-sell it.

This plan did not work.

For awhile, Merlin was sure it would. There were quite a lot of famous people, and Merlin wondered if he got one of them to sign it if he could possibly make money from the shirt. Of course, Arthur had not been at all pleased to see him. He also threatened to have him clean the employee bathrooms if he did anything stupid. Which would make Arthur look bad because Merlin was one of Arthur's employees. But when Sophia accidently spilled wine, or whatever it was she was drinking all over Uther, that was okay. Even Uther expressed that it was fine. Because Sophia looked like a deer in the head lights after it happened. Merlin had lost Darci about an hour into the thing, because she had been dragged away by Uther. He hadn't been able to find her since then. And even though it was his day off, Arthur still assumed he could boss Merlin around. Of course it was concerning the fact that Sophia wasn't feeling well, and she seemed nice enough, so Merlin took her to one of the empty rooms to lay down.

When they got there she looked confused and began rustling through her insanely large hand bag. When she pulled out a taser, Merlin was worried. When he got shocked, he was mad enough to attack. Unfortunately he had never been tasered before, and found himself passed out within a few seconds.

When he came back around it was dark. He wandered around the building and found no one there. He kind of expected Darci to wait for him, so he was curious as to where she was. He passed a parking lot and there were four cars still there. One was Darci's, so she must have still been here. But it was dark and quiet, and it seemed like no one was there.

Until Merlin got out into the court yard. A few lights were on by the pool. And there was Sophia. In the pool, with Arthur, their heads both under water. Before Merlin knew it he was in the water. He had both of them in the shallow end of the pool when Sophia punched him. She was conscious, but Arthur was not. He was heavier now, and his head kept slipping under water.

"You've ruined everything!" Sophia screeched. "We were going to be together forever in the after life! He wouldn't be my manager any more, so I wouldn't have to do art for him, and we could just love each other!" she was still hitting Merlin, but it hurt less. They were more like little slaps. He decided to ignore her to get Arthur out of the water. Arthur was breathing, and he didn't appear like he had drowned. He looked a little in pain, and he was twitching. Then Merlin remembered that Sophia had a taser. He turned around and she was still in the water crying.

He went back to her. "Calm down." she violently thrashed at him. "Calm Down." he said a bit more forcefully before pulling her into a hug-like hold. "It's okay." he said gently rocking her.

"I! I.. No it's NOT! He..." she was shaking. "I...I drew it all for him... I did it all for him...I just wanted him to love me..."

They stayed like that for awhile in the water. Merlin held onto Sophia until she calmed down. After they got out of the pool Sophia told Merlin where she had locked Morgana, Gwen, and Darci. Thankfully, they hadn't been tasered, they had been tricked and then locked in the room. It was Morgana that told Merlin that Sophia had a mental illness.

"Arthur thought that treating her like a normal person and having her still do art and work would be good for her." Morgana said when they got back to the pool and had made sure Sophia wasn't trying to drown Arthur again. She wasn't, she was cuddled against him and refusing to let go. Arthur probably would have protested if he had been awake. Gwen had already called the hospital and since there wasn't anything they could really do, they were sitting on lawn chairs talking.

"Being an artist is nothing like being a normal person." Darci said. "It can be fun, but if you're wrapped up in a contract it's extremely stressful."

"She seemed so normal." Gwen glanced down at the girl. "If I hadn't have seen her display myself, I would've never believed it." she turned back to the small group. "What's going to happen to her?"

"Probably a mental hospital. The best money can buy of course, because it was a bit of our families fault that this happened." Morgana sighed. "She really was amazing. Guess that makes you the only sane person left that's worked long time for our family." she said looking at Darci.

"I wouldn't say that." Darci said in her 'I know more than you do about the subject so lets drop it' voice.

"But..." Merlin said looking at the way Arthur and Sophia were close to each other. "What about her and Arthur's relationship?"

"It's strictly business." Morgana said, then cocked her head and looked at Merlin. "Did you think they were a couple?"

"I...Well... they seemed awfully close." he said a little embarrassed.

"So do you and Arthur, but not everyone believes the two of you are sleeping together." Morgana chirped.

"I...WHAT?" Merlin said looking confused and blushing at the same time. Darci tried to commit the image to memory, but it was too dark. "Gwen, what is she talking about?"

"Well..uh, I mean, the two of you are awfully close... for a boss and his employee... I mean, so are me and Morgana, but I mean that's another matter entirely...and I mean, only a few people have mentioned it so.. and.." Gwen was flushed and having a hard time finding the right words. Thankfully the ambulance arrived and they had to be serious.

Arthur was moody and sore for the next few days. Merlin thought it was because he lost one of his best artists, but Morgana knew better. Not that she would tell Merlin, they needed to sort out their budding romance themselves.

Darci almost gave Arthur the painting of Merlin to cheer him up, but decided to save it for something more special.

**{Author's Note: I hope everyone is enjoying the story. I know it got a little serious this chapter, but I tried to end it on a positive note. The painting of the blushing Merlin won't come up again for awhile, but I promise Arthur will get it eventually. Please leave reviews, because they make me happy, and help me with keeping on making quick updates.}**


	10. The Beginning of the End

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**The Beginning of the End**

_"Emrys. EMRYS!"_

Merlin woke up violently. His sketchbook, which had found a permanent place on the small desk near his bed, was in his hands in seconds. He quickly sketched a picture of the prince and a young boy trapped behind some sort of bars. The prince looked angry and he could still hear his harsh voice, and the young boys voice in his head. He didn't exactly know how the young boy had known his last name, because in the dreams he wasn't even aware of he had a last name. Once again Merlin had woken up a lot earlier than he needed to, but he couldn't get back to sleep. He knew Guy had prescribed sleep medicine for Morgana as her nightmares were getting more frequent, but Merlin didn't want to bother Guy by asking for some. Plus, Darci was still having nightmares, which usually went hand in hand with Merlin's and he wanted to have a connection with her. After telling him about her suicide attempt, she had slowly become a little more twitchy and jumpy. She had been sent to a few more art shows, and had to make appearances, and Merlin could tell it was wearing her out. So he went down to the 24 hour coffee shop on the first floor and got her one of her favorite drinks. It was some sort of peppermint vanilla soy thing that always reminded him of Christmas. He liked the drink too, so he got one for himself.

"Merlin." came a familiar voice. Usually his name was said a bit more forcefully, so it surprised him a bit. He turned to see Arthur at a small couch with his laptop. He motioned for Merlin to come over.

"Do you need something?" Merlin was really hoping Arthur didn't need anything, because he wanted to go see Darci.

"Not really. What are you doing down here so late?" Arthur said. Merlin noticed that he had some sort of doughnut thing that he was eating.

"Actually it's early. I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep."

"But you still need two drinks?"

"Oh, well, one is for Darci."

Arthur finally looked up from his computer. "She just had a show yesterday."

"I know. But she's usually awake, and if she's not I'll just leave."

"That will probably wake her up though. She needs her sleep, she's been worked ragged, but Uther still has her doing stuff." Arthur looked a little disapproving.

"She's not Sophia." Merlin said than regretted it.

Arthur's face twisted. "I know that, but she's not as stable as the other people here. I know you spend a lot of time with her, but she's tried to end her l-"

"I know what she did, and I don't treat her any less for it." Merlin said, not being able to believe that Arthur would try to mention her suicide as a way to scare Merlin away from her. "But she's still recovering, and none of the rest of your family ever goes to see her. How do you think she feels? The only time you people visit her is when you want something." Merlin's eyes widened when he realized that's what he usually did too. It was silent between the two of them. Merlin was still standing and was about to walk away when Arthur reached for his arm.

"I..I know, we should go visit her but..." Arthur kept his hand around Merlin's wrist but looked away. "You weren't there. You didn't see the blood every where. I... Everyone thought she was going to die. And she got better, but she was never the same. You didn't know her before that happened."

Merlin sighed. Arthur was still not looking at him, and that was obviously because he had shown unmanly feelings, but that wasn't going to make Merlin forgive him instantly. "And you don't know her now." he said as gently as possible.

Arthur turned to look at him. For a few seconds their eyes were locked. Merlin wanted to hug him or kiss him, but neither of them moved. One of the coffee shop workers dropped something, and the moment was gone. Arthur let go off his arm and sat back down. Merlin scurried away. Both drinks were no longer warm, and the whipped cream on top of them looked disgusting. So Merlin threw them away and went back to his room instead of Darci's. He ended up being able to get back to sleep. There were no dreams.

The next day was a bit hectic. An eight year old was running loose around the building. From what Merlin could gather from the angry, sympathetic, or apathetic people working, the boy was running away from Uther. His mother's boyfriend had found some of his art, and convinced his mom to try and get him an agent. The mother didn't really want to, but it would bring in more money, which would be able to help. The little boy didn't want to at all. When his mother and Uther had been talking he ran away. And was currently some where in the building. Merlin, who wasn't even looking for him, ended up finding him. He was crying and kept saying how he didn't want to be an artist. He said Uther was scary, and that he didn't want to have to do art because it was boring, and he only did it sometimes. Merlin felt bad for him, so when some people noticed them, he grabbed the boy and ran. This was a bad idea, because the other people followed. He had ran up a flight of stairs, and burst into the nearest room. Because Merlin had terrible luck, it was Morgana's room. Morgana and Gwen were sitting at a table and looked up at him confused. Then they noticed the kid. And then the people who had followed Merlin were at the door. Morgana shoved Merlin and the boy into another room in her apartment and answered the door. She lied and said no one had came in, and the people left to go check around on the floor.

"How important is this kid?" Merlin said amazed at the fact that people had ran after him.

"Well, Uther doesn't usually order anything, he just asks in his 'you better do it' voice, but he actually ordered that they find...." Gwen looked down at the young boy. "What's your name sweetie?"

"Mordred Adams." he said quietly.

Both girls smiled. "It's nice to meet you Modred. I'm Morgana, this is Gwen, and the one you're currently hanging onto is Merlin." Even though she said this, the boy still didn't let go.

"Hi Merlin." Mordred said smiling.

Merlin smiled back. "Hello. Are you okay?"

"MmHmm. I just hope my mom doesn't sign the deal. Since I ran away I don't think she would, but she might cause she likes her boyfriend even though he's stupid." Mordred looked like he might elaborate how stupid his mom's boyfriend was. "Thank you for saving me, everyone else just tried to take me back so I would step on their feet and run." This kid amused Merlin. He reminded him of himself when he was younger.

Merlin's phone rang. He set Mordred down and answered it. "Hello?"

"Where are you?" came Arthur's voice.

"Mo..er...um.. Why?"

"Have you even started to clean my office? I know it's not my room, but I'd at least like the trash brought out." Merlin wanted to ask why he didn't have the janitor do that, but Arthur kept talking, "And bring me some coffee."

"Did you go to bed after I left last night?"

"No, that's why I want coffee, now hurry up." he hung up. Gwen and Morgana were smirking.

"What happened last night Merlin?" Morgana said suggestively.

"I ran into him while I was getting coffee." Before either woman could suggest something a bit more lucrative he was out the door. Then he remembered Mordred. He opened the door back up. "You won't..um.. tell that he's here will you?"

Morgana did this angry sort of laugh. "No Merlin, unlike the men in my family, I don't force my artist to work if they don't want to. As long as no one else tells, I won't."

"Right. Okay." Then Merlin actually left.

After Merlin dealt with Arthur teasing him a bit, and emptying his trash, he was free to go clean up Arthur's room. Which meant Merlin ignored his duties and went to see Darci to ask for help. When he got up there she was cooking something on her stove quite angrily. "I didn't know you cooked."

"I don't." she said sounding tense.

"Then wha-"

"Do you need something?" she said sounding annoyed. "Because if not I'm a bit busy, and you could leave."

"I...Darci are you okay? Because..." Merlin didn't really know what to say.

Darci's shoulders relaxed and she turned to look at Merlin looking a bit calmer. "I'm sorry. I'm about three more public events away from murdering Uther. But you do obviously need something. You've got your 'I need help' face on."

"I...umm..." So Merlin explained the situation to her. She looked at him for awhile before answering.

"I'm going to say something, and I don't think you're going to like it." she said. "But I'm going to say it any way. Let the boy be an artist. If he doesn't like it he can stop."

"He already said he didn't like it."

"But he was scared. I'm sure Uther will understand that he's a little kid, and be a little nicer. Or maybe Arthur will sign him since he lost Sophia." she sighed. "Since you've gotten here there's been about five potential artist that have ended up not working out. I know Sophia wasn't your fault, and Helen wasn't actually an artist, but I'm sure Gwen, Guy, and especially Sandy were expected to do some. But Sandy ended up not signing, and since Gwen and Guy's stuff was actually yours...." she scratched her head like she didn't know what to say. "Do you know what I mean?"

Merlin did, but he didn't agree with her. "He's eight years old. He probably still has most of his baby teeth. And he doesn't want to do it!" Merlin knew that he was kind of whining, but he didn't care.

"It's your choice what you do Merlin." she said sounding distant. "But I'm not helping you this time."

Merlin accepted her answer and left. As he was walking down the stairs his phone rang. It was Arthur again. "Do you need something?" he said when he answered the phone.

"Are you avoiding me because of what happened last night?" Arthur said seriously.

"What? No. I'm not avoiding you."

"Oh, then you're just a terrible employee who avoids his work?" Arthur said teasing.

"You're in your apartment aren't you?"

"Yes. All by myself. My bed isn't made, my clothes aren't put away, the shades are still filthy, and my house keeper isn't here."

"I got a little tied up. I'll be there in like three minutes. So why would you think that what happened last night would make me avoid you? I mean, you weren't exactly nice to Darci, and the manhandling was okay-"

"The manhandling was okay?" he could hear Arthur's eye brow rising over the phone.

"I've had better." Merlin said in his most playful voice.

"You..." he could hear Arthur chuckle quietly. "There's something about you Merlin. I still can't put my finger on it."

"Is that good or bad?" Merlin said as he got into the elevator.

"I don't really know yet. Hurry up, I'd like you here before tomorrow Merlin."

"I'll do my best, it's just I'm on the phone with this prat right now, and he won't stop bothering me."

"I know the feeling. I'm speaking with one of the slowest idiot's I've ever dealt with." Merlin rolled his eyes. He heard the phone click and the call was over.

Once again he dealt with Arthur's teasing, and Merlin did his best to get the chores done as quickly as possible. It had been almost two hours since he left Mordred with Morgana and he hoped Mordred hadn't run away again. Fortunately, Arthur had to get back to his office, so Merlin hastily finished cleaning Arthur's apartment, and went to Morgana's.

There's was a book of famous artists on the table, and Mordred was copying their pictures. "What is he doing?" Merlin asked Morgana.

"He's copying the pictures. I'm going to take him and them to Uther and say that he copies pictures. The few that Uther got are of fields and flowers, and he's going to say he copied them out of a book."

"Oh. Um.. Thank you. Sorry I wasn't that much help." Merlin said sheepishly.

"You brought him here. That helped a lot." Morgana said with a smile.

"Where's Gwen?"

"She went to go get Uther. He's probably in a meeting, so it will take awhile. It's more like a break while she waits." Morgana wasn't looking away from Mordred.

"You're a really nice boss to her. All I heard from her before I came here was how nice you were."

"And you don't here that any more?" she said raising an eye brow.

"Now it's usually me complaining about Arthur, or her talking about how great Lancelot looks with his shirt off."

"Did Lancelot steal her away from you? I mean before you fell down the stairs I thought the two of you were a couple."

Merlin shook his head. "We pretend to be. So that people don't flirt with us. The two of us are horrible at flirting, and if we do we end up with people that we really shouldn't be with. It's our way of sticking up for the other. But her and Lancelot have always had this amazing chemistry."

"Like you and Arthur?" Morgana said with a smile.

"No." Merlin was blushing. "We... I mean, there's no way we'd ever be like that. But you can tell Gwen and Lancelot are like star crossed lovers. I think now that she's a bit older they might actually work out."

Morgana was studying Merlin. "Why did you bring Mordred here instead of to Arthur or Uther?"

"... He didn't want to be an artist. It's his life, and even though he's young, I think it should be his choice." Merlin looked at her. "Why didn't you bring him to Uther?"

"Same reason you didn't. He doesn't want to be an artist."

"Even if you couldn't have signed him yourself?"

"Do you ever wonder why I don't have any long time artist like Sophia or Darci?" Merlin hadn't until Morgana asked him, but now that she had said it he was curious.

"Why?"

"I feel like I would be trapping them. I mean, Sophia lived in this nice beach front property, all by herself, and the only person she saw was Arthur when he came to visit, which was only a few times each year. And Darci's locked up in the top floors. By her own accord, but only because she's been in there so long. It's like she's scared to be out in the real world." Morgana looked sad. "The last show she had was a fundraiser, and dealt with the pedophiles on the internet. Darci was confused the whole time. She didn't understand how any kids would go willingly with someone so much older than them. When she heard some of the stories she started crying. She's still so unstable. I couldn't live with myself if I knew I did that to someone."

"Morgana," Merlin thought, "is amazing." But out loud he just said, "I don't think anyone could."

"Uther does. But just barely. So maybe you're right." She turned her attention away from Merlin and to Mordred. "You almost done?"

"Close enough." he said holding up the replica of one of the drawings.

"I should go then." Morgana just nodded and Merlin headed back to Guy's room to see if there was anything he could do to help.

/|\

Modred tends to usually get away the first time he's caught. And sometimes, he doesn't come back. He doesn't have any reason to hate Arthur, so he's stays away, and lives a nice little calm life.

This was one of those times.

/|\

**{Author's Note: I realized for the last two chapters I had left out my favorite part. I was sad. But I will try to remember this time around. I hate to ask for help, but for Ch. 15, I need a rare blood type. If anyone knows one, please message me, or leave it in the comments. I hope you liked this chapter, and please leave reviews.}**


	11. Excalibur

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**Excalibur **

Tristan DuBois is one of the most charming men Merlin has ever met. He's Arthur's uncle from his mom's side, and has been away on business. When he comes back, with a deal overseas, and looking for people to come with him there, Merlin thinks that all the people who get to go along will be extremely lucky. But then he has to go and ruin what Merlin thinks about him.

/|\

Tristan Dubois doesn't always want to kill Uther.

But he's an older brother, so he always holds Uther responsible for what happened to his sister.

/|\

There's a big party when Tristan comes back. Which means Merlin and Gwen get time off. They had planned to go see Darci, but seeing as she was at the party they ended up going to a Gwen's father's cafe. They eat a bit to much sugary pastries, and have a few to many sweet coffee drinks. Merlin made it to the lobby of the building before he was throwing up in a bathroom stall. It tasted terrible, and he vowed never to drink anything but plain coffee from this day forward. Which was a total lie, but Merlin's stomach felt like it might explode, so he swore it any way. When he stumbled out of the stall to wash his hands and mouth, there was a man outside looking concerned. He may have been in there earlier, but Merlin had been focussed on emptying his stomach contents.

"Are you okay?" the man asked as Merlin used water from the sink to swish around his mouth.

He spit. "Yeah, I just had to much to drink." Merlin realized that this made him sound like some sort of alcoholic, but was much to busy concentrating on getting the sugary tasting bile taste out of his mouth.

"I know the feeling." the man said with a laugh. Merlin doubted this, because only he and Gwen were foolish enough to use coffee drinks to play a drinking game. "I'm Tristan DuBois."

He wasn't what Merlin had imagined. Uther and Arthur both had blonde hair, piercing eyes, and hardened personalities. Tristan had light brown hair, kind eyes, a friendly smile, and a very open personality. "It's nice to meet you sir." he said giving his best professional smile. "I'm Merlin Emrys."

Tristan's eyebrows moved a bit. "You're Guy's assistant?"

"Umm..kind of. If I'm not busy being Arthur's persona house keeper, I'm helping Guy. How do you know him?" Merlin said reaching for paper towels.

"He and I went to college together. You?"

"My mom went to college with him." he wiped his mouth.

Tristan looked at Merlin for a few seconds. "Hunith Emrys?"

Tristan had that look on his face. The 'I just met my bastard son while he was throwing up in a bathroom' look. "I was born by artificial insemination." Merlin said quickly to prevent that awkward conversation.

Tristan laughed. "I take it that happens a lot?"

Merlin sighed. "A lot more than I would like."

"Well, if I'm gone any longer my PA will probably have a heart attack. It was nice meeting Merlin." Tristan waved and then was out of the room.

Merlin was plagued with nightmares that night. In reality, it was just one of his dreams, but ti was a lot worse than the others. There was a knight that was killing the people he fought, who ended up being a zombie. There was also a lot of running around a castle late at night. The part that freaked Merlin out the most was when the dragon in his dreams acted mental over something was fixed by whoever he was throwing a magical sword into a lake. He woke up in a cold sweat. He threw up some more of the sugary junk he had ate, and on the way back into his bed he grabbed a pencil and his sketchbook. The drawing was simple, except for the details on the sword. It showed the sword from Merlin's dreams submerged under water. It was stuck upright. The water had been shaded, so the sword appeared to glow. There was some sort of writing that was inscribed on the sword that Merlin didn't understand. When he finished the sketch it was almost six, so Merlin decided to get ready for work. He took a short shower, got on his clothes, and went to help Guy until he had to go to work for Arthur at 8. He ended up doing his normal chores, and since Arthur was busy moving people around to join Tristan's company, Merlin had a lot of break time. When he found Gwen she looked just as bad as him.

"So, were never doing that again." he said seriously joking.

Gwen laughed. "Just another thing to add to the incredibly long list." Darci was yet again busy, so Gwen and Merlin went to bother Lancelot. He wasn't busy training with anyone, so all three of them just sat around and talked.

And with Lancelot, talking usually meant him telling Merlin he should work out.

"I'm eating way more than enough. In fact I ate so much last night I threw up." Merlin said trying to defend himself since Lancelot had just accused Merlin of not eating.

Lancelot looked even more worried than he had before. "Merlin! That's extremely dangerous. That's probably ruining your esophagus."

"It..." Merlin pouted. "It was Gwen's idea!"

"Hey!" Gwen exclaimed looking annoyed. "I suggested we go to my father's cafe. You were the one who wanted to play 'I never'. And since we know each other, we knew exactly what to say, and you drank too much."

"How much coffee did the two of you have last night?"

"Between the two of us?" Merlin said looking at Gwen. "Seventeen or eighteen cups.

"Seventeen cups?" Lancelot's mouth was open.

"You're going to catch flies." Gwen reprimanded.

"How did the two of you ever get to sleep?" He looked exasperated. "That much caffeine probably kept you up for hours."

"Well actually, throwing up is very successful at making you sleepy. I could barely keep awake after I got out of the bathrooms."

Gwen lightly batted Merlin's arm. "Lucky. I couldn't sleep at all. I still have a ragging head ache."

"Really," Lancelot said sighing, "I thought I wouldn't have to babysit the two of you after I left high school." The two younger people in the room rolled their eyes and scoffed. "But really, have either of you ever heard of eating healthy?"

"Um excuse me, are you calling me fat just because I don't eat some special diet that you suggest?" Gwen said in her mad voice.

"No, Gwen, that;s not what I mea-"

"You already said it. I'm sure you'd love to have a skinny little muscly girl friend instead of flabby old me!" she roughly grabbed Merlin's arm and stormed out of there. Merlin always hated when he was there when the two of them fought. The only thing that was worse was being there when they made up. Because there was usually a lot of groping and kissing and pet names. So while Gwen complained Merlin just nodded in the appropriate places. Gwen decided to clean, because that's what she did when she was mad, and Merlin went to help Guy since he wasn't busy.

Merlin spent the rest of the day running around for Guy. From what he could gather, Owain's office, and Pellinore's office would be headed overseas. Most of the employees were excited about it except for the few who had fiances, children, or families. He was delivering sleep medicine to Morgana when he heard her and Arthur arguing.

"Because he's our uncle Arthur, it's a good job opportunity, and you'd own the company while he was away, which is a lot."

"Morgana, you know he's only offering me the job because he's my mother's brother. If I stay here I'll inherit everything."

"Uther wouldn't disown you if you went overseas. And-"

"Why do you suddenly want to get rid of me?"

"I don't want to get rid of you, I just don't want you to pass up a good job opportunity because you're still trying to please your father."

"I like my job here. I know everyone here, and I don't want to leave them. I'm going to decline the offer."

"That's awfully impolite."

"I'll give him some art work or something. To show him that I'm doing fine here."

"He's a big fan of Darci's work."

"I know, but he's already bought most of her stuff, and I still don't feel exactly comfortable going up there just to ask for art so I can decline an offer from Tristan."

"What are you doing?" Gwen whispered coming up behind Merlin. He nearly dropped everything he was holding, but thankfully didn't.

"I...uh... didn't want to interrupt the conversation they were having." Merlin said sheepishly.

"But listening in on it is okay?" she said with a teasing smile.

"Maybe... I didn't exactly mean to." he handed her the medication bottle. "Anyways, this is for Morgana, so... yeah. Give that to her please." he quickly walked away.

The last delivery was to Darci. It was headache medicine along with her normal allergy medication. When he got there she was frantically going through even more art work. "I found even more in a closet I didn't even know I had." she said sound cheerful. "He wants more of my new work, which I'm not going to give to him, but then I found this and I really have a bit to much of this stuff don't you think?" she did this quick little laugh that sounded strained. "But it's so hard to give away. And then you, with your...Anyways, what are you doing here? Want some tea? I put it in the fridge, so it's cold, but I think it's good. I liked it. So, how come you came here?"

Merlin realized that she had asked the question twice, but she still seemed to be rambling about the tea and how she put lemon in it because she added to much sugar. Her hair was sticking out in awkward angles and her eyes appeared to have bags under them. She looked a little crazy, and Merlin didn't really know what to do about it. "I brought you some medicine." he set it on the table, which bumped into something and caused a plastic cup to fall off.

"Oh thanks. I've been having such bad dreams. You won't believe them. I'm a dragon in them." Merlin was about to point out that she had told him this before but she kept talking. "It's so messy right? I should really clean it up. Or get rid of some of the art. Would you like any? I don't really wanna give any of the new ones to Uther. But... You could some to the people you know. Like Gwen or Morgana, or Arthur... or Guy. Maybe the cafe."

"Darci are you tired? I think maybe you should lay down for awhile."

Darci smiled lazily at Merlin. "Yeah... I am tired. But, if you need any of the art... for.. whoever. Could you get me some water? For the head ache medicine."

"You really wouldn't mine if I took one for Arthur? For a gift?" He filled up the glass with water and handed it to Darci.

"For Arthur?" she motioned to the far corner. "There's the 'Embrace' set. Do you think he would like that?"

"I'm sure. It's for someone who loves your work." Darci's eyes were already drifting shut. Before he left with the paintings he looked around. The room was covered in trash or stuff that should be picked up and placed some where. The next time he had more time, Merlin decided to come up and help Darci clean the room. He went down to Arthur's room hoping to find him there. Instead it was Uther. Who noticed Merlin and the painting right away.

"What are those?" he said as Merlin set the painting down.

"I..uh.. they were some paintings for Arthur."

Uther was by the pictures and looking at them. "This is Darci's work."

"Umm.. yeah. She said I could give them to Arthur to give to Tristan as a gift. Since he's probably not going overseas with him."

"Even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be going." Uther was still looking at the paintings. She's my artist. Her work should be coming to me. So I'll be taking these. Arthur has already given Tristan an old piece of Sophia's." Uther grabbed the two paintings and headed towards the door.

"I.. Wait, but they're fo-"

"You are a good employee. You've shown that you care for my son's safety, you get your job done, and even have time to help an old friend of mine." Uther's face hardened. "But if you are the reason that Darci is becoming the way she is, I will not hesitate to have you fired, and keep you from getting hired at other places." Uther left before Merlin had time to protest.

That night Merlin's dreams were plagued with hazy fake memories of a king trying to kill him. They seemed a lot different from his other dreams, so he didn't really understand what was going on. Once again he woke up feeling sick, but he didn't throw up. When he tried to remember the dream he could recall anything that happened except being scared for his life.

The next few days he was busy doing Arthur's chores. At night there was a big party where everyone said good bye to Tristan, Owain, Pellinore, and all of their employees. Uther unveiled the two painting of Darci's and she looked like she may have attacked Uther right then if there hadn't have been people in the room. The next day Merlin helped with cleaning out the offices of Pellinore and Owain's workers so they could get people in their places soon. THat night Merlin had to bring allergy medicine to Darci. He was barely into the room when a glass mug was thrown in his direction. It shattered against the door. He turned and saw Darci standing with a mad look in her eyes. It was dark and only a few candles were burning. The room had a creepy glow about it, and Merlin felt trapped. Merlin though he may have been dreaming again, but then she threw a book, which hit him and it hurt. Merlin was relatively sure that things didn't hurt in dreams.

"You! she said angrily almost screaming. For a few seconds he thought of his dream with the angry dragon. It had felt just like this. "I said it was for Arthur and you give it to his father?! Those were important. I wanted him to have them! They were so he would see. Not for his FATHER!" she grabbed another thing off of the table she was near. It was a glass vase. She threw it against the wall that was behind Merlin. The pieces hit the ground. Luckily none hit him.

He dropped the medicine and ran towards her. "Stop." he said grabbing her.

"Let go!" she yelled and flailed against him. Unlike Sophia, she had better aim and caught him in the nose. It started bleeding, and Darci stopped acting like a crazy woman. "Oh God." she crumbled to the ground.

Merlin tilted his head up. "No, Darci, it's fine. I've had a bloody nose before."

"And me throwing glass at you? That was okay?" she was shaking.

"If you got me some tissue...then probably." That got a shaky smile from her. "Your medication is somewhere on the floor."

"You dropped it? How careless?" she laughed. Merlin managed to fake one. Something was going on. She was going crazy, or at least crazier. She was able to get up and got toilet paper from her bathroom. Merlin was sitting on the couch with toilet paper up his nose. "I'm sorry for freaking out like that. I mean, I'm sure he threatened to fire you or something. So, all is forgiven for now."

"Darci, what is going on? You're acting... crazier than you usually do."

Darci took this deep breathe that sounded like a sigh. "I'm not taking allergy medicine Merlin. It's stuff I take so I don't try to commit suicide. Except, I've been avoiding taking it, and it's starting to make me high strung. And ten times crazier than normal. I think I roared this morning when I woke up. Like a dragon would." she did this pathetic little laugh. "So... when your nose stops bleeding, can you help me find the medication? I don't think I'm exactly ready to ween myself off of it yet."

So Merlin helped Darci find the medication, she took it, and then went to sleep. Merlin decided this would be a good idea to do this himself. He snuck in to his room so Guy would worry about the bloody nose, and fell asleep before he had the chance to change out of his clothes.

**{Author's note: Sorry that Darci is going crazy. The next chapter will focus on more Arthur/Merlin. i found a blood type that will work perfectly, so thank you to everyone who left suggestions. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave reviews.}**


	12. The Moment of Truth

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**The Moment of Truth**

It was weird seeing Karen. Mostly because she grabbed Merlin and dragged him into the nearest open space which happened to be a cell phone store. Before the workers there could ask if they needed any assistance she was glaring at them. So they backed down, and Karen dragged him off into a dark corner of the store. She looked concerned and angry at the same time.

"Have you been sold into some sort of drug ring? Or being held hostage by a gang?" If he hadn't been staring at her he would've thought she was joking. "Are you stuck in human trafficking, or anything like that?"

"What are you talking about? I got a job as a housekeeper." he said as her look turned violent.

"So you've just been ignoring your family then? Do you even know what has happened to Will?"

"What? Is Will hurt or something?" Merlin said. "I mean I haven't really had time to get in touch with them, but if no one's told me that-"

"That's because no one knows what happened to you. You don't even call. Really, there was a lot of talk around the neighborhood that you had been kidnapped or something, and you've just been busy?" Karen looked like she might hit him. "I can't believe you. I have other stuff I need to do." she stormed away. Merlin walked out of the store quickly back towards the dry cleaners. On the way back he juggled holding Arthur's stuff, and getting his phone out. He called Will's phone, but the number said it was out of service. So he tried his mother's cell phone. He was walking into the building when she answered.

"Hello?" came a tired familiar voice.

"Hey mom. How are you?" he said trying to sound cheerful.

"Merlin?" she said sounding surprised. In the background he thought he may have heard Will. "I'm doing as good as I can in this situation. I haven't heard from you in weeks. How come you called?"

"I ran into Karen and she gave me some grief for not calling you guys. I realized that I hadn't for awhile, so I thought I should. Did something happen to Will?"

"I...Maybe..." his mother sounded pained. He stepped onto the elevator going up to Arthur's apartment.

"Mom? Are you okay"

"I.. Why don't you talk to Will about it? He's right here." he heard the phone be handed over.

"Hey dork, how's school going?" Will's voice sounded a lot hoarser than normal.

"You would be so proud. I've been working and ignoring a lot of my courses." Will laughed and then coughed. "Are you okay?"

"Not so much." Will sad sounding regretful. "You know the Kanan job I was doing?" Merlin nodded until realizing that Will couldn't see him. He could hear Will's snort over the phone. "You just nodded didn't you?"

"Yes, ha-ha, lets make fun of Merlin cause it's your favorite thing to do. What happened on the Kanan job?" he stepped out of the elevator.

"We hit a gas pipe, and none of us realized it. The time we spent in their ruined our lungs. Matthew's already died."

"I... What?" Merlin said swallowing. "What are you saying Will?"

/|\

Will always dies before Merlin.

There was a wonderful life in which they lived together and had many children who had children who would visit the two until they grew old together. Will had died only 3 minutes before Merlin in their sleep.

This was not that life.

/|\

"I'm kind of dying Merlin." Will said.

"Kind of?" Merlin whispered.

"If you start crying Merlin I will reinstate my belief that you are a total girl." Will was trying to tease him. His best friend, since he was young, was trying to make a joke out of the fact that he was dying.

"I... Could I talk to my mom?" Merlin said quietly.

"Why of course Merlana. Hunith, your daughter wants to talk with you."

Merlin usually had a comeback for that. But Will wasn't usually dying. "Honey, I'm sorry you had to find out like that." Hunith did sound sorry. "It's just we've been busy with a lawsuit, and Matthew passed away a lot faster than everyone thought, and there was his funeral, and Will's bed-ridden at the hospital, and for awhile I was worried about that cost, but them we won the law suit, so I don't have to worry about that. I really would've told you if I would've had the time." Hunith sounded like she was going to cry. He could hear Will in the back ground telling him nice job on making his mother cry.

"I'm going to go get my stuff, and I'll be there by tonight." Merlin said as he opened the door to Arthur's room.

"You don't have to Merlin, I mean, we would all like it-"

"I'm coming. I've been an ass and wasn't even aware of what happened. I'm going to be there." Merlin set Arthur's dry cleaning on the table. "I'm gonna go pack. I'll talk to you tonight." he hung up.

"Where are you going?" Arthur was sitting at one of the tables in the kitchen. Morgana, Gwen, and Lancelot were there with him.

"Home." Merlin said. "I have to, now, and I'm sorry if that's not allowed or something. I'm not expecting to be paid or anything, and you can take it off of my paycheck if it's so important, but I have to go." He was already making his way towards the door.

"Did something happen with Hunith?" Gwen said standing up to go with him.

"No. It was Will. I don't think you met him. But I have to go." He was out the door and running back to the elevator. He was doing the math in his head. "A trip to Ealdor takes 6 hours by train and it's one right now so if I make the 2PM bus I could be there by 8. And the hospital is relatively close to the hospital, so I can just walk from there. But I probably can't stay there... unless Hunith lets me. Since she's a nurse they probably let her stay there..." He was busy thinking that he didn't notice Arthur.

"You can't just leave." Arthur said grabbing his arm.

"I have too. I can't just let Will die. He's my nest friend, and what kind of person would I be if I couldn't even be there for him when he was dying?" Merlin was shaking. Suddenly Merlin was jolted forward and Arthur was hugging him. Of course it was over as soon as it started.

"Right. I'm sorry that your friend is dying. Your vacation won't be paid, but when you're done the job is still yours." Arthur smirked. "It will be nice to have a competent cleaning crew for awhile."

Merlin blinked. "Um.. Thank you sir."

"You're Welcome. Now um.. you can go. Home or where ever." It was a bit awkward so both men just walked away.

Merlin grabbed a few clothes and shoved them into his messenger bag. He also grabbed his sketchbook. He went up as fast as he could do Darci's room to say good bye. She wasn't there so he tore a page out of the sketchbook and left her a note with his phone number. He just barely made it to the bus station. The trip was long, and after running around a lot he was able to fall asleep on the uncomfortable seats. His dreams were full of a small town being attacked. He was still the boy with magic. A boy, who reminded him a lot of Will, kept telling him to use his magic. There was another man there, the prince again, and he was the reason that the wizard wasn't using it. In the end the boy who reminded him of Will died protecting the prince from an arrow, even though he was actually protecting the wizard from being found out. They burned the boy who died, and a woman who Merlin believed to be the wizard's mother told him that one day he will be able to tell the prince that he does magic. Merlin woke up shivering, and called his mom to make sure Will was alright. Will was, and he was sleeping. Merlin said he's be there in about an hour and Hunith sounded very happy. The rest of the bus trip was spent drawing a picture of a wind storm being created. In his dream it had gotten the raiders to leave, but the prince had also seen it happen. Then the boy had been shot with an arrow and said that he was the sorcerer. Merlin's hands were shaking when he finished the picture.

For the next few days Merlin never left Will's side. Hunith was able to convince the staff that this was okay. Mostly because Hunith had worked at the hospital for years and she was pretty much the boss. On the first day Merlin had lost his cell phone some where in the room, and he didn't really care. He spent most of his time talking with Will or drawing him on paper his mom had brought for Will to write on. His lungs were slowly collapsing and talking wasn't very helpful. Of course, Will still loved to talk, so as soon the nurses left he was talking again. When Will was sleeping, which was a lot Merlin would draw. When a doctor would come in to check on him, Merlin would draw. When Will would go get x-rayed, or just when he wasn't in the room, Merlin would draw. The only time Merlin wouldn't be drawing was when he and Will used the paper to talk to each other. They wrote a lot about what they used to do as kids. On the fourth day Merlin found his phone which had about 17 voice mails. Arthur, Morgana, Lancelot, and Guy had all left one. Arthur's was talking about how fast all the work was getting done. Morgana's was to tell him no matter what Arthur said, she could tell that he missed Merlin. Lancelot wanted to make sure that Merlin was eating, and not letting the stress keep him from being healthy. Gwen left two messages. The first message was asking if he was okay, and how will was doing. The second was to complain about stupid Lancelot was, and how if he wasn't cute, she would be sick of him already. Merlin knew this wasn't true, plus she sounded a little drunk, so he ignored that message. Eleven were from Darci. They were all about 30 seconds long, with her just asking how he was doing and when he was coming back. The last one was her telling him to come back, and that everything was supposed to happen, and that he couldn't change that, and how he should come home already. He deleted all of Darci's messages.

Will was asleep which usually meant Merlin drew pictures, but he couldn't stop thinking about Darci. Instead of calling his family, and checking in on how they were doing, he spent excessive amounts of time in her room. She was almost always helpful, and had art, and whatever else he needed, but she consumed all of his free time. He felt somewhat used, even though he knew he was using her also. But that wasn't at all a healthy friendship. He thought more of when she threw the stuff at him. She was dangerous, and could hurt Merlin if she put her mind to it. She could also hurt his career, because if something were to happen to her, Uther would probably suspect him. Uther's threat still rang in his ears.

It was the fifth day when Will and Merlin confessed their unmanly, but completely platonic love for each other. None of the nurses or the doctors were in the room so Will was talking.

"Have you ever loved someone, and you want to get close to them, and be by their side, and protect them from whatever wants to hurt them?"

"I'm not going to go find one of your ex-girlfriends that you've suddenly realized you love and want to tell them this before you die. It would be fair to them when you died." Merlin sighed. "Plus, I'd be the closest one, so knowing your girlfriend's they'd probably want pity sex."

Will laughed. "And you know you could ever live up to my standard?"

"Well, you know, I don't really want an STD. I know you already have thousands, which mean your exes probably do-" Will threw s pillow at Merlin.

"Not like a girlfriend. In fact, I'm relatively sure I don't even want to kiss this person. Maybe a manly hug, but then again, he's such a girl-"

"I love you too Will. Forever and Always, yes I know that was a girly thing to say, shut up. But I don't want to sleep with you either. I've never been all that interested in retards."

"And I'm not into she-males. Or males for that mater." Then a nurse came in and their conversation had to come to an end.

That night Will got worse. They took him into surgery, and Hunith was with them. Merlin didn't have anyone to talk to, and his hands were shaking so Merlin didn't think he would be able to draw anything. He ended up calling Gwen. He was practically crying, and Gwen could tell this. She did her best to keep his mind away from Will by talking about everything that had been going on. She says that without Merlin around to make fun of, Arthur and Morgana had been arguing more. She said Darci was letting out more work that she had been doing while Merlin was gone. She said they were all messy pieces with the color seeping together and giving it a creepy look, but Uther was still getting a lot of money from them. According to Gwen, Lancelot was still an idiot, but he had been getting her flowers, and she was enjoying that. Then Will was coming back from surgery and Hunith wanted to talk to Merlin so he said good bye to Gwen and went over to her.

"They don't think he'll make past tomorrow night. He can't talk any more. They're going to be putting him on as much pain medicine as possible so that he doesn't feel much."

"Will he still be able to hear us?" Merlin asked trying to ignore the tears that wanted to fall.

"Yes, and answer back, of course he'll do that in writing, but no more of you two talking when the nurses leave the room."

"Okay." Merlin didn't sleep any after that. He still couldn't draw, and while Will was unconscious Merlin just cried. When Will woke up he took one piece of paper and wrote 'girl' on it. Merlin just laughed and rolled his eyes.

Gwen, Morgana and Arthur came to visit. Gwen and Morgana had brought flowers.

_Those for you Merlana? _Will wrote.

Merlin just rolled his eyes. "Thank you guys for coming. How'd you know where I was?"

Gwen looked a little guilty. "I talked with Hunith last night. She said you...er...well, I wanted to see her, and she said you might need help with getting home, because six hours is a long time going home alone."

"Thank you Gwen." Merlin smiled at her. Arthur noticed the stack of picture Merlin had drawn of Will. He picked them up and started looking through them. He looked at Merlin.

"You did these?"

"I..." Will tugged at Merlin's arm.

_I did._

"You drew all these pictures of yourself?" Arthur sounded disbelieving.

_Merlin said he wanted something to remember me by._

Arthur seemed to accept the answer. "You look really tired." Morgana said to Merlin. "Gwen, Arthur, and I are going to get coffee. Do you want us to get you some?"

Merlin just nodded. A few minutes after the three had left Will reached for Merlin's hand. He grabbed it and squeezed three times. Merlin smiled and squeezed back. Will let go and started convulsing. Merlin called for the nurses and doctors frantically.

Thirty minutes later Will was gone. Merlin was hiding in his mother's car out in the parking lot. He didn't want to have to talk to anyone. He wanted Will back. He wanted to be living in the small apartment and fighting about stealing socks, or fighting over who would be making dinner. He wanted to be giving Will a massage after he strained his shoulders lifting stuff at work. He wanted Will to be calling him a girl. His mom was the one who found him. She climbed in the back seat with him and hugged him. After a few minutes she spoke up.

"You're going to miss the 4PM bus."

"Don't care." Merlin said. "Not going."

"Yes you are. You have a very good job, and from what I can see a very nice boss."

"He's not that nice." Merlin grumbled.

"Then why did he come all the way out here?" Hunith had her all knowing smile on.

"Because...because he's a nice boss." Merlin said sounding defeated. "It's just... I completely ignored since I got my job. And I'm really sorry about that."

"It's okay. I was busy."

"And I could've been helping." Merlin sighed. "I'm really sorry. I should've-"

"You should be exactly where you want to be. And I think you want to be with him. I'm not mad Merlin. Just try and call me once or twice a month, and that will be fine with me. I'm very busy myself, so I can't always be a doting mother. Now hurry up, I won't have you missing the bus. It's the last one that goes out today."

"I love you. Call me whenever you need anything."

"I love you too, more than anyone else. And you make sure to call me if you need anything."

Merlin smiled, kissed the top of his mom's head, and got out of the car.

He just barely made it to the bus on time, and Arthur teased him about it. It wasn't exactly calling him a girl, but it did help with filing up the hole that Merlin felt in his chest.

**{Author's Note: I hope you guys like this chapter. I really miss Will even if he's a secondary character. Please continue to read the story, and please leave reviews.}**


	13. The Labyrinth of Gedref

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**The Labyrinth of Gedref**

Merlin met Ann Hora once, when he was very little. Merlin was about three years old, and it was before Darci had signed with Uther. Ann had wanted to sign Darci, but Darci had still been in high school, and she wasn't ready to commit to anything, except baby-sitting Merlin. Hunith had just been starting as a nurse, and was spending extra time at work getting used to everything. Ann had come to offer Darci a contract while Darci was watching Merlin. Ann was really nice, and had brought cookies which Merlin enjoyed immensely. Darci did not sign the contract, and aside from delicious cookies, there wasn't much that happened that day, so Merlin didn't remember it.

The second time Merlin was involved in something to do with Ann Hora, there were no delicious cookies, but it also wasn't very eventful.

Merlin was still pretty depressed about Will's death, and everyone around him noticed this. Arthur had stopped teasing him as badly as he usually did, Gwen kept giving him sympathetic smiles, and even Morgana asked him if he was okay when he saw her. He had still been avoiding Darci, and spent most of his break time on the phone with his mom. She said Will's funeral went well, except when Will's mother expected all the money he won in the lawsuit to go to her. When Hunith got the money, Will's mother went a bit crazy. Hunith ended up transferring a good amount of the money into Will's mothers account, but that was because she wanted to, not because she had to. Talking with his mother also gave him a chance to hear gossip. A good amount of Will's girlfriends had shown up at the funeral, each of them very surprised to see that there were so many woman there. "The fight that Will's mother tried to have with me was not the only cat-fight there." were his mother's exact words.

While he wasn't on the phone with his mother he was doing his courses online. Now that he spent more of his time working on his school work, he fell asleep extremely tired, and his dreams seemed to stop being so strange. There were no new pictures that he had drawn in his sketchbook since the six hour trip to Ealdor. Mostly because he had taken a few pictures of Will back with him in the sketchbook and every time he saw them he kind of wanted to cry.

Of course, his relations with Gwen, Morgana, and Arthur drifted back to normal quite quickly. There had been another party for some reason, so he, Gwen, and Lancelot all went to Tom's cafe. Tom was busy working, and since there looked like there was a lot to do, Gwen and Merlin pitched in. Lancelot also helped by carrying all the heavy stuff, and bringing trash outside. Gwen and Merlin were still doing the insane amount of dishes when Lancelot and Tom went out back to talk. Merlin raised an eyebrow.

"I may have mentioned that it was a bit serious between me and Lancelot to my father. It's one of the first times I've ever even mentioned a boyfriend to him." Gwen said focussing on scrubbing a nonexistent stain on the plate. Merlin was doing the same thing, so he didn't say anything. "I think dad's going to talk to him... about you know, me and him being together. I don't really know, but I'm really nervous either way."

"Would you be terribly angry if I drove us away from talking about that subject by mentioning something else?" he said and both stopped scrubbing at the stains. Gwen grabbed the plate from him and put them in the dishwasher. She grabbed another and Merlin did to.

"Is it about Will?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Lately, you do this thing with your face. I used to see it back when we were really little when you couldn't find a toy or something. And even when we were in high school and you didn't know the answer for one of the tests. Only now, there's a lot more pain, and a lot less confusion about it. I just figured out when you asked that," she said gesturing at Merlin's face. "That you probably do that when you're thinking about Will."

"Oh." he brought a hand up to his face. "Really?" Gwen nodded. "He told me he had this manly platonic love for me."

Gwen snorted. "What?"

"Yeah, I know. It was ten kinds of awkward for me to." Merlin shrugged. "But I keep thinking about it for some reason."

"Why?"

"Because I really really loved Will. As platonic as his love for me, but still. He was my best guy friend, and now he's gone. And..."

"It feels like somethings missing?" she asked with a sad smile.

"Yeah." Merlin sighed. "I mean, you will always be my best friend, because we've known each other forever. But there's always stuff that you can't talk about with girls, or even just joke about."

"It's the same for me. There's a lot of stuff that I can't talk about with you or Lancelot, but I can talk to girls about it."

"Oh no girlfriend. You can always tell me if you got period cramps. I make sure to bring midol with me where ever I go." Merlin said in a high pitched girl's voice.

Gwen laughed, but then her face turned serious. "I do kind of know how you feel. I mean, Brenna didn't die, but I still miss her a lot."

"Brenna?" Merlin had never heard of this person ever, and couldn't figure out why Gwen looked so sad.

"She was a friend of mine in middle school. She was one of my best friends. She was smart, and pretty, and could have anything she wanted just by batting an eyelash. And even though she was all of those things, she still decided to be my friend. Long story short, she was actually a really mean person, and scared me away from being friends with other females for a long time." Gwen smiled. "But then I met Morgana, and she was just like Brenna, except much much nicer. And I'm not saying Brenna is like Will, or that Morgana is like Arthur. But all of us, especially Arthur, really care about you and don't like seeing you all mopey. And I know for a fact you haven't been spending your breaks with Darci, so you should come join Morgana, Arthur, and me for lunch sometimes. Maybe even tomorrow if you're not busy." Merlin just nodded and went back to washing dishes.

That night Merlin had a dream about a unicorn. He was hoping it was just a strange dream, but then the prince was there, and he knew it was one of those dreams. There was a lot of running around, getting hit with stuff, and eating gross food. But this was all made up for near the end of the dream where Merlin was sitting across from the prince with two goblets between them. Something was wrong, but Merlin was still enjoying the breeze. Closer inspection towards the prince revealed that he looked a lot like Arthur. Whatever problem there was got solved, but not without nearly giving Merlin a heart attack when he thought the prince was dead. He woke up an reluctantly drew the scene in front of the water with the two goblet's between himself and the prince. He had been ignoring the time, but when he looked up after finishing the picture it was already 8:30AM. He rushed to get dressed and up to Arthur's room. Of course, he paid no attention to his surroundings, and tripped on a briefcase that had been left on Arthur's floor. He flailed until he hit the ground. Arthur, who had been patiently waiting for his almost always late house keeper, laughed at the display.

"Did you do that on purpose?" Merlin said ungracefully managing to prop himself back up on his feet.

"Well, if I had someone cleaning up my rooms like they're supposed to, it probably wouldn't have been on the floor." Gwen was right. Arthur was not Morgana, because he was not at all nice. Yet Merlin liked him mean like that. The banter between them was easy and fun. And always friendly. "It's a shame you're late, because that just means you'll have to work faster."

"Yeah, 30 minutes really will ruin me getting all of my work done when all I have is 8 hours." Merlin said sarcastically.

"You have four hours today. Morgana and Gwen want to go to some fancy restaurant by the water. I'm not going by myself, because Lancelot always grills me about it later. For some reason he seems to think I'm interested in Gwen. If I have you there I can just say I talked with you." Arthur looked at Merlin's clothes. "You do have something better than that right?"

"I'm sure I can find something. But why don't you guys just eat the food from the cafeteria? I thought you guys had gourmet chefs."

"We do, but the staff is on strike. The boss down there, this nice lady who's been working here for years, organized it. Her grandson was treated badly by someone working on here, and she decided they needed more respect. My father's trying to figure out how to fix it, but the woman has a sore spot with him. Apparently he was able to sign someone she wasn't able to years ago, and she still holds a grudge. Don't know why she would choose to work here though, since she seems to hate the man who owns the building." Arthur ran a hand through his hair. "So Morgana and Gwen have been finding all these little cafes or nice restaurants to go to. It's okay, but some of them are so foreign I have no idea what I'm eating."

"Well thanks for inviting me along anyways. So what needs to be done so I can go?" Arthur listed off all of his normal chores, and Merlin silently loved him for not adding any of the ridiculous ones he usually did.

Time still went by really quickly, and by the time Merlin finished it was nearly time to meet them at the lobby. He hurried to his room and changed into his dark blue shirt, black skinny jeans, and his nice pair of grey converses. Then he hurried down to the lobby. He narrowly missed barreling into Guy, who thankfully wasn't carrying anything. Arthur, Morgana, and Gwen were all waiting there. "Sorry." Merlin said trying to smooth down his hair.

"You're almost always late." Gwen said, but in her kindest voice. "I told Arthur to tell you to come a little early, so we didn't completely miss our reservations."

"It's a place you have to make reservations for?" Merlin squeaked.

Morgana and Arthur just looked at him like those were the only places that exist. When the two were a bit further in front of him and Gwen she whispered quietly, "They won't go to any place that isn't. Not that they're stuck up or anything, they were just raised that way." Merlin just nodded. Then noticed that he didn't have his wallet.

"I..uh, I'm really sorry, but I forgot my wallet upstairs. I.. Will we be really late if I go-"

"I'll take care of it Merlin." Arthur said in his 'no matter what you say I'm doing it' voice.

"I...um... Okay, thank you." he said a bit embarrassed.

Merlin didn't really know what I'll take care of it meant. He thought he would probably have to pay Arthur back, so when he saw the prices he was a bit worried. He was able to find some sort of pasta dish(he hoped, he couldn't really read Italian, or whatever was written on the menu) that he could kind of afford, and he hoped that it was big so he would have leftovers to eat for dinner and possibly lunch tomorrow. He also only drank water, and didn't order it with a side of soup or salad. The pasta dish was big. And also covered in so much pesto that each bite made Merlin's eyes water. The taste in the back of his mouth was very unpleasant, but he kept eating. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying their food, so Merlin pretended to also. He would just wash the pesto off before he ate it for dinner. And with enough parmesan cheese it would probably taste fine. Hopefully.

Arthur didn't really talk to Merlin. He talked at him, and more so to Morgana. They were talking about business. Gwen actually seemed to understand what they were saying, so Merlin would just add a nod of his head every once in awhile. Eventually the bill came, the food was paid for, and they made their way back to the building. Arthur decided that Merlin had rushed through everything and should do it again. He may have even muttered something about getting someone who could actually do their job, but Merlin decided he had probably said Merlin was such a great worker and he just wanted to see Merlin do it again. Yes, that was exactly what Arthur had said. So Arthur went to go work in his office, and Merlin cleaned his room. When Arthur came back from work, Merlin had take out that Gwen had suggested he and her go buy. Arthur actually looked thankful. For three second before he told Merlin he didn't like sesame chicken. Merlin told him there was other stuff to eat, and Arthur kind of accepted his answer. Arthur still made Merlin eat all of the sesame chicken, and even though it got the pesto taste out of his mouth, he wasn't all that thankful.

On Merlin's way back to his room he saw a young man sitting on a bench looking a bit freaked out. "Hey." Merlin said siting by him, because he didn't have anything else to do, "Are you okay?"

The boy looked up at him looking quite guilty. "Kind of. I mean, yeah, but no. Like in a whole, I'm doing very okay, but then sub-consciously, not really."

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Merlin really hoped this kid hadn't done anything illegal. He seemed innocent enough, in his white hoodie and light grey skinny jeans, but he did look really guilty.

"Um.. yeah... Okay. Just try not to get really mad or anything."

"Why would I get mad?" Merlin asked confused.

"Do you eat in the building cafeteria?"

"Sometimes."

"Then you might be mad." the boy said sheepishly. Merlin just shrugged so the boy continued. "Well there's this girl who works down in the cafeteria with me. Me and her are about the same age, and we go to the same high school, but the only time we ever talk is here. And we have kind of been flirting. So I was trying to show off, and I kind of spilled some stuff on one of the businessmen. He got really mad, and then so did my grandma, and she started the strike thing. And I haven't really told her the truth that it was my fault. The guy kind of ended up taking the blame. But I'm afraid if I tell the truth my grandma will get mad, and there's always the chance that she could lose her job because of me." The boy's guilty face seemed a little bit more relaxed now that he had told someone, but he was still worried.

"Umm...Oh wow. You really screwed up." Merlin said. "You have a whole kitchen on strike just cause you were trying to flirt with a girl? She must feel mighty lucky huh?"

Even if the boy was worried this got him to smile. "Oh of course, she was falling into my arms while everyone painted their signs for marching."

Merlin laughed. "I don't really know how to help. I mean, your grandmother seems to really care about you, so maybe if you told her she should accept the next deal from Uther she would listen. But I don't really have any ideas. Except maybe try to learn how to flirt better."

The boy seemed to be looking a bit better. "Right. Good idea." the kid laughed and got up. "Thanks."

As he walked away Merlin wondered if maybe he should change his courses to something with counseling. But then he thought about all the pregnant chicks at his old school who would always be seeing the counselor, and the one who's water broke while in his office. He decided against that idea. Merlin spent the rest of the night working on his courses, and slept without any strange dreams. The next day he wasn't at all surprised to find out that the cafeteria strike was over.

**{Author's Note: I'm so sorry this is a day late. was acting up. I hope having two chapter updates today makes up for the small problem. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave reviews.}**


	14. To Kill the King

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**To Kill the King**

Tauren is a beast of a man, and until he hit Merlin in the face, Merlin had no idea he existed.

/|\

Tauren does not always want to kill Uther. But he usually hurts Merlin in some way.

Sometimes it's unintentional, but most of the time, it's on purpose.

/|\

The first thing he thinks when he get off the phone with his mother is why she was in town and at Tom's cafe. But then it's more focussed on finding Gwen. From what he can remember he thinks she's at a meeting with Morgana. Most likely to hold Morgana's papers and folders so nothing get misplaced. Arthur had forbidden Merlin from that job on the first day when he had almost dropped Arthur's briefcase into a tub full of water. So he heads to the sixth floor which is where most meetings are held. He has been told before not to burst in, because... something about impoliteness. Merlin hadn't been completely listening, but he had got the just of the conversation. He rushed in,towards Gwen, when someone violently turned him around and hit him in the face, hard.

This someone was Tauren, Morgana's body guard. Merlin may have heard Arthur say 'Merlin!' in that mildly annoyed/slightly worried voice he sometimes used, but his cheek hurt to much for him to acknowledge anything. Of course Gwen clouded his field of vision and he remembered why he ran into the office. He reached towards her.

"We...ow..." it hurt to move his jaw. "Have to get to the hospital. Your dad had a heart attack. We should go see him. Right?"

Gwen looked worried and scared. "How...What?"

"I, Huntih called me like three minutes ago and told me about it."

"Your mother's in town?"

Merlin rubbed his cheek and stood up. "I don't know why either. But she said he's at Philosopher's hospital, so we should go yes?"

Gwen turned to Morgana. Morgana smiled sypathetically. "Go."

Merlin and Gwen were in a taxi to the hospital before Merlin actually remembered he was hit in the face. "Sorry." Gwen said sheepishly. "If any of us would have known it was you, well... Tauren probably wouldn't have been in the room. Well, I mean he usually is in meetings, and you usually aren't. And I know why you aren't, because the whole briefcase thing, plus Uther is pretty scary. Not that you-"

Merlin cut her off by putting an hand on her knee. "Gwen, it's fine. You forget how many jocks I pissed off in my younger days. Remember the locker incident?"

"Yeah." Gwen smiled sadly. "Do you know what's going on with my father?"

"Um... no I just got a call from my mom saying he had a heart attack while he was working at the cafe."

"Oh." Gwen spent the rest of the ride staring out the window. Merlin knew it was because she would probably be tripping over her words if she tried to talk. When she was younger she used to ramble on until someone stopped her. Slowly she got better at getting to the point, and now her prattling was something of the past. Except when she got nervous. Or scared, both of which she was now.

When they got to the hospital Hunith was able to find ice for Merlin's face. According to the doctors, Tom was doing a lot better, and would probably be discharged within the next three days depending on how he was doing. That didn't matter to Gwen, who refused to leave his side. Merlin, who never really knew Tom all that well, left the women at the hospital and went back to the building. He ended up doing chores for Arthur, and still had a lot of time. Will used to tell Merlin that they should always get him upset, cause he was so much more efficient then. He found out from Gwen what she needed to do, and despite her protesting, did it for her. Morgana had come in to correct him a few times, but aside from that he was alone. When he was almost done Morgana and Arthur came in.

"We're going to go get some food to bring to Gwen at the hospital. Do you have any preferences?" Morgana says looking through her small purse for her keys.

"Oh, no. I'm not going there tonight. But I know Gwen likes Indian when she's worried. She like strong flavors to take her mind off of things."

"Thanks." Morgana said with a smile. Arthur looked like he was about to say something, but the two of them left anyway.

Later that night Merlin was working on some of his course work. His phone buzzed from a text message from Arthur. 'Can you bring me a couple sodas?' was what the screen asked of him.

Merlin lazily went to the vending machine on his floor than made his way down to Arthur's room. He opened the door to see Arthur eating some food out of a plastic container. Arthur noticed Merlin and motioned him to sit down by Arthur on the small couch. Arthur handed him a small container with plain white rice and some assorted vegetables. "I didn't think you'd want anything flavored to strongly." Arthur said with a kind smile. "Especially the way you made faces at the pesto the last time when we went out for lunch. "

Merlin laughed. "You noticed?"

"Everyone at the restaurant noticed. At certain points I thought you might cry." Arthur smirked. Merlin just nervously picked at his food. He ate a bit while Arthur a some of the strong smelling stuff he was eating. Arthur looked over at Merlin. He moved a piece of Merlin's hair away from his face. "Is something wrong?" he said in one of the kindest voices Merlin had ever heard Arthur use.

"I don't know. But... I like right now. It feels... nice." Merlin didn't really know how to explain it. He felt safe next to Arthur, feeling his left side pressed against Arthur's right on the small couch.

"Nice?" Arthur said his eyes sparkling.

"Comfortable. Safe. I think." Merlin suddenly remembered who he was. Arthur's employee. He shouldn't be nearly snuggling with him on a couch. He wasn't sure if sharing this moment with him was even professional. "Um...unless you aren't. Cause then I could move or leav-"

Arthur put a finger to Merlin's lips. "It's fine. I agree. It is... nice." Arthur's arm wrapped around Merlin's shoulder and they were brought a tiny bit closer. "I don't want you to move."

"Oh-Okay." Merlin said suddenly embarrassed about how close he was to Arthur. "I...um.. Should we... Is this...What exactly..." Merlin could get a thought or question to come out right.

Arthur pressed his lips against Merlin's quickly. "It's fine. I won't let anything happen to this, or us if you don't want it to." Arthur's arm came away from Merlin's shoulder and he focussed his attention on the food again.

"I..." Merlin didn't know how to say what he wanted to say. "I want us. Er.. I mean... I'm happy with my job, and I like the friendship we sort of have, but I wouldn't mind something more. I mean, I would like something more, but I'm content with just this. Eating on a couch. But I mean, kissing on a couch would be... Um... Does anything that I'm saying make sense? Cause I mi-"

Arthur cut him off with another kiss. This one lasted a bit longer than the first one and Merlin could taste the spices on Arthur's lips. Arthur pulled away. "I want us too." They sat on the couch close to each other while they finished their food. Arthur walked Merlin to his room and Merlin assumed he went back to his. He fell back in his bed and had nightmares about the maidservant's father being killed. There was also a part near the end of the dream where someone who looked a lot like Morgana's body guard flew some sort of magic at the person Merlin was in his dreams and Merlin woke up. He had a really bad feeling so he called his mother. It was 4:41 at night when Merlin learned that Tom had passed away. Without really being completely awake he got dressed and went to the hospital.

Gwen was somewhat hysterical when he got there. She was crying about how he was to young to die and other stuff, but talking to fast for Merlin to be able to understand. When Hunith took over for calming her down Merlin called Morgana and Arthur to tell them that they wouldn't be able to make it to work that day. Thirty minutes later Morgana and Arthur were there. Morgana helped a lot with getting Gwen to calm down. Arthur helped Merlin who hadn't even realized he was shaking. Arthur cuddled with him against a wall until he stopped. Arthur kept lightly kissing his cheek and that's when Merlin realized there was a very big bruise from Tauren's fist.

This action makes Merlin laugh. "Are you kissing it better?" he says leaning his head back against Arthur's strong shoulders.

"Maybe." Arthur lightly shrugs, but Merlin keeps his head there. "Are you okay now?"

"A lot better. Thank you."

It's a lot later in the day when everyone finally leaves the hospital. Gwen has paid vacation for the time she and Hunith are going to use for planning Tom's funeral, figuring out what to do with the cafe, and helping the workers manage Tom's cafe until they find someone to take over the manager job. Merlin will also be helping with the cafe, but only after work. Morgana have all the work they missed while at the hospital to do. Merlin had his and Gwen's work to do. He does Morgana's room first, and then Arthur's. Merlin waits around awhile, but Arthur doesn't come, so Merlin leaves. He gets back a lot later to his room than usual, but he still has time to grab his sketchbook and draw a picture of a princess and a king talking in front of a grave. He thinks it may have been from his dream last night before he falls asleep. A strange thought echos through his head and he can't remember if it's from a dream, or something he heard when he was awake. 'Bad things happen in threes.' He decided it's a messed up nightmare, and nothing to worry about.

_"Anything else?"_

_"No...Just...Don't be a prat."_

"Damn." he mused to himself. "Another one of those dreams." he got out of his bed and made his way to his kitchen to get a glass of water. This time he had been fighting with a giant angry kitten with a snake head. All because of some clumsy manservant. He hadn't told anyone about his dreams except Morgana who had strange dreams herself. Her's were always changing, from modern to the past. That would've just given him a headache. Being a prince was hard enough.

Arthur threw the plastic cup in the sink for Merlin to wash tomorrow, and climbed back into his bed.

**{Author's Note: I realize this chapter is a lot shorter than my other chapters, but I have never seen the actual episode. I hope the Arthur/Merlin made up for that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please review.}**


	15. Le Morte d'Arthut

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**Le Morte d'Arthur**

Merlin was for once on time to work. Arthur found this amazing, and teased him about it. "If I would've known telling you I cared about you would get you to do your work better I would've told you a long time ago." This had the opposite affect of what Arthur was hoping for because it made Merlin blush and look absolutely adorable.

"So what are you doing today?" Merlin said as he made Arthur's bed.

"There's an important brunch I have to go to. Uther's going to the event with Morgana, so I'm bringing Darci."

"Hmm..." Merlin said as he absent mindedly fluffed a a pillow,

"How come you haven't been to see her for awhile?" Arthur asked as he grabbed a few folders to put in his briefcase.

"I've been busy."

"I don't think I give you that much work."

"You don't, but college does. I had been ignoring it when I first started, but if I want to get a degree I'm going to have to work for it." Merlin decided the pillows were fine and went to check the small kitchen for dirty dishes.

"What are you going to go into?" Arthur said coming into the kitchen to get a bottled water from his fridge.

"Childcare. Probably for elementary age kids."

"Hmm..." Arthur looked at Merlin. "And they won't mind if you're late every morning?"

Merlin rolled his eyes. "I won't be late. The education of children is a bit more urgent than folding your clothes and making sure your pillow is the way you like it."

Arthur smiled. "But you are still pretty young." he said tousling Merlin's hair. "So I'll have you here a few more years doing all those things before you go be a teacher."

Merlin grinned back at Arthur. "I haven't even been here a year yet." Merlin said with a laugh. "And as much as you say I'm a rubbish house keeper you seem pretty reluctant to see me go."

Arthur wrapped Merlin in a quick but strong hug. "I don't want you to leave until you have to."

Merlin blushed. "Kay."

Arthur went over to his briefcase. "Well, I have some stuff to get ready, and then I have the brunch, so I'll see you when I et back from that."

"Good luck." Merlin said with a smile.

"Like I need it." Arthur said a bit cockily.

Merlin spent the rest of the morning feeling warm. He cleaned Arthur's room as best as he could. Which was pretty great in his opinion. He was making his way down to Guy's room when he shuddered. Memories that weren't his flashed through his mind. There was a giant monster trying to attack things. He was running. Arthur, the prince, Prince Arthur was hurt. Merlin's head pounded and he had to sturdy himself against a wall. That was the first time something like that had happened when he wasn't asleep. An anguished scream still echoed through his head. He did his best to right himself, and stumbled into Guy's work area. Guy had gone along to the brunch because he had a few old friends there, according to the note he left. So Merlin rummaged around the cabinet until he found something for a headache. He was sitting on his bed drawing the prince sleeping with a bandaged shoulder and some sort of fever. He felt his cell phone ring and picked it up.

"You need to get to the hospital." Gwen sounded frantic over the phone. "Arthur and Darci were in a car crash. Just hurry."

Merlin didn't have time to say anything before she hung up. He rushed downstair and found Lancelot there. "Do you need a ride to to hospital?" Lancelot asked.

"You're going?"

"Gwen's there. As if her father wasn't enough, now this. I think everyone needs to be there. The two of them will need everyone who loves them to be there as a reminder as to why they should pull through." Lancelot looked very serious. "And it's easier to comfort people who are worried if you're there with them."

Merlin just nodded and they rushed out to Lancelot's car. It was silent in the car mostly because Merlin was thinking so hard he didn't think he would be able to make words. The fact that in his dreams he had finally realized that Arthur was the prince, and that he had the vision of the prince getting hurt when Arthur got hurt... Even though he took headache medicine, his head hurt even worse than before.

Gwen hadn't even returned to work yet, but she was at the hospital before Merlin. She felt bad, not calling him until she got there, but hearing Morgana over the phone made her only think of her. Gwen couldn't help but think of the dreams she had been having lately. "The prince in the dreams got hurt. And Morgana said she had dreams about Arthur getting hurt. Just like the ward in my dreams." Gwen had a terrible headache, which was why Hunith had drove her to the hospital. Hunith, who when paired with Guy, had the whole hospital listening to them. Which made sense, since Hunith was a vert accomplished nurse, and Guy used to be an amazing doctor. "Not that he wasn't anymore. He still-" Gwen caught herself. She was trying to explain her reasoning to herself. Which usually got her to start rambling, which would be bad right now. She saw Merlin rush in with Lancelot, and she was in Lancelot's arms before she even knew what she was doing. He was petting her hair and saying soothing things to her in a Latin language she didn't know. She felt calm either way.

Merlin felt like he couldn't breathe. He watched Guy and Hunith walk by every once in awhile, and there were many nurses and doctors, but no one would stop and explain what was going on. Gwen didn't know much except that there was a car crash, and seeing as how she had buried herself into Lancelot's shirt, he couldn't get that much of an answer from her. Finally Morgana came to see Gwen. Uther was still refusing to leave the operating room, so Morgana had time to reluctantly explain what had happened.

She looked tired and very shaken, but she began talking anyway. "Darci was driving, which she really shouldn't have been. Something was probably said, or something happened, and she crashed the car into a metal pole. She and Arthur are in critical condition. She's worse off than Arthur, but since Arthur's blood is so rare... They need O- blood. They haven't had a blood drive for awhile, so they don't have enough. If Arthur had enough I think he would pull through cause he's so stubborn, but..." Morgana looked like she was about to cry. "Darci... Even if she does pull through... Which a lot of the doctors are saying that she probably won't...she's crazy, and there's no way Uther would let her... she'll go to jail or something." Then Morgana was crying. Gwen hugged her, but she couldn't stop. "If Arthur... Arthur can't die, he.. he just can't. It's to soon."

Merlin couldn't do anything to help him. Of course Arthur would go and make saving him difficult. Having O- blood, one of the few types that can only be replaced by O-, and nothing else. But Merlin was determined. If there was not enough blood at the hospital, Merlin would go and find someone with O- blood that would donate it. But he wasn't going to walk around asking people for it. He got his cell phone out of his pocket. He walked away from the small group and around a corner. "Edwin?" he said quietly.

"Merlin?" came a cheerful voice from the other end. "I didn't think you would call. How are you? I'm doing great. The classes I'm taking are hard, and I don't have much time for drawing any more, bu-"

"Can you still hack into certain systems?" Merlin asked cutting him off.

"Oh." Edwin was quiet for awhile. "Okay," Merlin could hear him tapping away at keys. "What do you need?"

"Anyone in the city who has O- blood."

"Ohh. Hacking into hospital stuff and personal files. Give me a minute." there was more clacking. "Arthur Pendrag... oh, is that who this is about?" Edwin asked then there was more typing.

"Yeah. He.. he's hurt." Merlin said.

"Found the nearest person. I bet Uther isn't going to like this." Edwin said with a small laugh. "Nimueh Pecora. One of his up and coming rivals. I don't know if you'll get any blood from her. She hates the Pendragons with a passion if everything I've ever heard about her is true."

"Mmm..." Merlin didn't care. He would do whatever it took to get blood from her. "Address?"

"I'd suggest just trying her building. Though I doubt you'll get a meeting with her without notice. She's only interested in finding artists."

"Shouldn't be a problem then." Merlin said making sure he had his sketchbook with him.

"But... you said you would never want to-"

"I know, but I want to save Arthur more than I want to live a stress free life." Merlin practically gasped. He couldn't believe he had said something as cheesy as that.

"Good luck with that then. I have other work to do. Call me if you need anything else."

"Thanks." Merlin said, but Edwin had already hung up.

Merlin went pass Gwen, Morgana, and Lancelot quickly that he didn't hear Gwen call his name. In fact he didn't hear from any of them until he was in a cab on the way to Nimueh's office, and his cell phone rang. "What are you doing?" Gwen's semi-annoyed voice said over the phone.

"Nimueh has O- blood."

"Nimueh as in Arthur's old personal assistant who hates Arthur and Uther?"

"Nimueh as in she has the same type of blood as Arthur and is the closest."

"She's not going to-"

"She will." Merlin hung up and put the phone on silent.

Her building was amazing. There were plants and models and animals that all just seemed to wander around. There were large windows that looked out at the city or the sky. There were also large TVs with different types of scenarys playing on them. A beautiful young woman in a flowy red dress came over. Her dark black hair was pulled back. She smiled. "Can I help you?"

"I...I'd like to speak to Nimueh."

"You are." she said with a curious look on her face.

"Oh...Right. Hi. My names Merlin Emrys and I work for Arthur Pendragon." her eyes narrowed when he said that. "He's been in a car crash and you're the closets person with O- blood and he might be dying..."

"So you want me to give blood to the man who nearly ruined my career?" she said still looking at him like she was confused.

"Yes. Please. I think he needs it. Or he'll die. And that... I don't even know. You scout artists right? I don't want to, but..." he pulled out his sketchbook. "I..."

She put her hands on the sketchbook, but didn't take it from him. "He's a giant asshole, you know that right?" she looked up at him with kind eyes.

"Yeah, but he's a giant asshole that I'm kind of in love with. Maybe. And he pays good." he looked at her. "Please."

/|\

Nimueh usually doesn't like the Pendragon men. But she always knows she not supposed to kill Arthur. And sometimes her life turns out good enough for her to forgive what ever injustice they did to her.

/|\

"I will. If I knew I could save someone, and I didn't, that would be like murder. Should we go now?" Merlin just nodded. He hadn't expected her to be so nice. "I'm not some sort of evil witch. No matter what my namesake says. I have a heart."

"I... Thank You. Thank you so much."

The ride back to the hospital was, for once, not quiet. Nimueh was very interested in Merlin, because she said she had never met anyone who was stupid enough to fall in love with an asshole. She also asked a lot about why he didn't want to be an artist. She asked if Arthur had got any nicer. He told her about dumping water on Arthur's head. But then he also mentioned how Arthur had brought him to the hospital after he got poisoned. They were at the hospital by the time Merlin finished with the story.

While Nimueh gave blood Merlin found a very angry Gwen, Lancelot, and Morgana. "I got Nimueh to give blood. The other doctors said it might be enough." Merlin looked at the ground. "Please stop glaring at me?"

"You don't want to be an artist." Gwen said quietly.

"And I'm not going to be." he said with a small smile. "She wouldn't even look at my stuff."

"You ignored Gwen's calls." Lancelot said in a disapproving voice.

"I...well I kind of, was busy."

"I know, and thank you." Morgana said smiling, "It was really nice of you to go find her."

"But... Guy and Hunith worked a little too hard and had to rest for awhile. Morgana and Lancelot helped us, and they're resting now. It would've been nice to have some more help."

"I'm really sorry Gwen." Merlin said sheepishly. "I won't leave again. Promise."

And he didn't. He stayed until Arthur was stable, and then until he was awake. The only other person who did the same was Uther. Morgana had left to help tend to all the business that Arthur and Uther had missed. Gwen had gone with of course to help Morgana. Lancelot had gone along to help Gwen, which probably meant he would just do what the two ladies told him. Guy and Hunith had left to get some rest. Arthur got stable fairly quickly after the blood transfusion. Uther had gone and thanked Nimueh, who told him she still wouldn't forgive him. He said that what understandable, and Nimueh left to get back to work. Merlin didn't go into Arthur's room because Uther was there. He generally stayed in the lobby, until one of the nurses told him he could go see Darci. He didn't want to, but he went any way.

She wasn't completely stable, and the doctors were afraid she might go into a coma, but there was nothing else anyone there could do, so they let Merlin go see her. Her eyes were closed, and if you ignored all the bandages and bruises, it would be easy to believe that she was sleeping. Her face was a bruised mess, and Merlin thought her skull may have been busted open, by the way the bandages were wrapped so tightly around her skull. Her arms were outside of the hospital blanket and also heavily bandaged. He could see all the bruises. The rest of her body was under the blanket, but Merlin assumed it probably looked like the parts of her body he could see. He stood around her room feeling awkward. The nurses said he could talk to her, and as many times he had seen it in movies, he still felt strange about doing it. Finally he gave in.

"So what was crashing the car into the pole all about?" he said sitting down near her bed. "I know I haven't been to see you for awhile...and I'm sorry. But, my best friend Will died by getting poisoned. And because I had been spending so much time with you, I had no idea until he only had a few days left. And then I was trying to keep in touch with my mom afterwards, and actually doing my school work so I can eventually get a job someday that doesn't involve cleaning someone's house. And then Gwen's dad, you know Tom right? He had a heart attack and then..." Merlin lowered his voice. "Me and Arthur kind of kissed. And I think we have something right now even if I don't know what it is." Merlin sighed. "I suppose if I would've been there to tell you this you might have decided not to crash the car into a tree. But I didn't come and tell you, and I'm sorry." Merlin sat there in silence for awhile. A nurse came in.

"You're Merlin Emrys?" she said looking at him.

"Yes. Wh-"

"Mr. Pendragon has left to go back to his building. Since his son is awake, I thought you might like to know."

"I..." Merlin stood up. "Yes, thank you." Merlin smiled and rushed to Arthur's room.

Arthur was looking quite annoyed sitting on the bed. "They said I couldn't have my laptop."

"Want to use mine?" Merlin said motioning towards his bag.

"I think it's because of a health concern Merlin, but if you want me gone so bad... But really, I don't want to use your out dated piece of garbage that you think works well."

"I was worried about you too. I'm glad to see you're well enough to insult my baby." Merlin said sitting down.

"You're not going to say we need to talk, are you?" Arthur said out of the blue.

"No, why would I?" Merlin asked confused.

"No reason. How long have you been here?" I know the brunch was a good 17 hours ago."

"Then about 16 hours I would say." Merlin said.

"What? Have you gotten any sleep?" Arthur looked surprised and concerned at the same time.

"I almost got a nap about 20 minutes ago, but the nurses don't like it when you fall asleep against a wall." Merlin laughed.

"You should go home and get some sleep." Arthur said seriously. "I'll be here in the morning, plus I know you can't do your chores if you're tired."

"If you're not in your room to mess it up, there's not going to be any chores."

"I'm sure I could think of something." Arthur joked.

"I'm sure you could." Merlin said rolling his eyes. "Something totally pointless, and I'd still have to do it." They sat there looking at each other for awhile. Finally Merlin had to ask. "What happened?"

Arthur understood the question right away. "She brought you up, and I was telling her about us. She said she had something for me, and reached around to grab something from her bag. It was like she completely forgot we were in a car. The next thing I know I'm being helped out of the car by paramedics, and she's bleeding again." Arthur looked uncomfortable. Her hand was clenched around a picture she had painted of you."

"I..." Merlin swallowed. "I'm sorry, Arthur."

Arthur did one of his sympathetic smiles. "It's not your fault." he reached his hand over and put a piece of Merlin's hair behind his ears. He kept a hand on Merlin's ears. He let go. "Unless we look at it on a bigger level. If you hadn't been so inspiring that she drew you, she wouldn't have had the painting, an-"

"Ha-ha." Merlin grabbed onto Arthur's hand. "You're just so funny."

"I know." Arthur squeezed Merlin's hand. "Now go get some sleep. That's an order."

"Yes my lord." Merlin said standing up. "I'll be back as soon a I can."

"I'm sure you will." Arthur smiled at Merlin, and Merlin smiled back. He left Arthur's room and realized how tired he really was. He didn't even remember the cab ride home, and barely remembered taking off his shoes and falling into bed.

**{Author's Note: One chapter left. For anyone who would like to see my interpretations of what Merlin, Darci, and the other characters look like, feel free to check out my DA account, ForeverTiki. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and please leave reviews.}**


	16. The End of the Beginning

`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

**The End of the Beginning **

At the end of the beginning it comes down to this. Arthur gets out of the hospital, and while Merlin is trying to do some sort of chore(because after what happens, Merlin can't really remember much) Arthur grabs him. Arthur manhandles Merlin onto his bed and just sort of traps him there. He gives Merlin a flirty little smile and kisses him. And then they just cuddle. And Merlin feels so comfortable he decided he will stay there all day with Arthur. Then Morgana and Gwen sneak in and laugh a little, and Arthur gets up. There's a bit of banter, and then Merlin has to do chores again. And for once, Merlin doesn't complain at all in his head, because he's to busy replaying the morning in his head.

At the end of the beginning it comes down to this. Darci is awake, but not talking anyone. Not the doctors, not the nurses, and certainly not any one from the building. Morgana gets in a fight with Uther and he realizes that what happened with Darci is mostly his fault. But when he brings her back to her apartment she wants to stay there. And once again lock herself up, by her own accord. Merlin doesn't visit her. He won't visit her. Not yet, because he's scared. Arthur doesn't mind, but he visits her. He tells Merlin that all she does is draw or paint. That she doesn't acknowledge that anyone is there. Arthur swears that Darci smiled at Uther once. Which freaks Merlin out a little.

At the end of the beginning it comes down to this. Maybe more stuff happens. Maybe there's an asshole named Cedric who Merlin does not like at all and he will never admit that he may have been a bit jealous. Maybe there's someone who Morgana and Merlin forever call the 'troll.' Maybe Gwen and Arthur flirt a little... which they both deny, so Merlin forgives them. Maybe Darci talks again. Maybe Merlin tells Arthur that he draws. Maybe Arthur is fine with it, and doesn't try to pressure him into a deal. Maybe they live a nice little life. Maybe Merlin, Gwen, Morgana, and Arthur all have dreams of their past lives that they sometimes think could be memories.

At the end of the beginning, we still know that there is more to come.

But we don't know what's coming.

And maybe that's okay.


End file.
